I’m a huge Jay-Z fan and I love listening to Reasonable Doubt before I grind. My favorite line in any song is, “Nine to five is how you survive / I ain’t tryin to survive / I’m trying to live it to the limit and love it a lot.”

Thus, the thread is named. That line applies to me pretty well too. I’m a sports broadcaster with a degree from a great school, but jobs are tough to come by in this field. I have four or five freelance/part-time jobs. Over the years I’ve played poker as a side job, and done stuff like writing and web design. I want to do something I love, not just get a steady job I don't love.

By the way, you may remember me from this thread (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/17...g-pro-1155890/). I’m going to try really hard not to fall off a cliff and stop posting in two months this time.

I don’t know how much I’ve made off poker over the years, but I’d guess it’s around 40-50K. I’ve never just built a roll though, and every time I’ve tried something has gotten in the way – relocating for a job, car problems, expenses, etc.

Now I find myself in an... interesting spot in life. I had to move home due to being offered a couple jobs in two locations, all while I would have had to sign a lease in NYC. Thus I didn’t sign it, the jobs fell through, and I couldn’t find an affordable place without my roommates, who had signed for their own spot at that point. So in the Spring I moved home, kept trying to pursue one of the aforementioned jobs, got out of debt, saved money.

Now I decided to drop the freelance writing cause I hated it, and it wasn’t paying well enough to move out. I have some money saved, I have enough money coming in to keep saving, and the next job I get hopefully I can move back out.

What’s all that mean? I should be able to grind, and put all the money into the bankroll. If I am successful, I can give myself some options in life to avoid all future 9 to 5s, so I can live it to the limit and love it a lot. I might even be able to make poker that “next job,” that allows me to move out. It would work well with a broadcasting schedule too – it’s flexible and I could make my own hours.

I'm in Delaware, one of my part-time jobs is near AC (sometimes I work remotely, sometimes I go in). I can realistically play at Delaware Park, in Philly, in AC, or maybe even in Maryland somewhere. Right now all of my play is at the Borgata to make sure I get comps in the same place.

Step one, grind the roll out to something respectable. I've got a few posts typed up from my first few sessions, so I'll post them today... and I've got sessions planned this weekend. I still need to set some formal goals.

For now, it's grind out a roll to be comfortable at 1/2 and then to move up to 2/5, make good decisions at the table, put in solid hours and avoid too many big bluffs (you'll learn why in a couple posts). The other goals are more pics and more hands. I know they're lacking in the first few posts that are coming, I'll do better!

From 12/31 and 1/1

So the short-term plan was simple. Grind, try to run up a roll again and attempt to regain my room comps. Yes, it was going to be my… Ali-like return to the ring.

http://youtu.be/ciWBzhmOC_o?t=39s

As much as I love Rounders, I’m not one to overdo it with movie references. But, coming up in a future post, you’ll get to hear the absolute dumbest and most hilarious Rounders reference I’ve ever heard at the poker table.

Anyway, the plan was to put in a marathon session on New Years Eve… Because:

A) My social life sucks since I’ve been living at home. Even working 4 broadcasting jobs, which doesn’t pay enough to move out, women think you must be lazy or something and dating is virtually impossible. I don’t have any old friends left in the area… So, hey, poker beats sitting at home on New Year’s Eve.

B) There are a lot of drunk people on NYE and drunk people are bad at poker. So, I profit off their inebriation.

C) I was itching to grind.

Only problem? Said drunk people do not navigate to the poker room on New Year’s Eve. So instead of a bunch of drunken revelry and immense dumping of money, I was treated to a bunch of depressing people who had nothing better to do on NYE and old people who weren’t staying up til midnight anyway.

Worst of all, as the people who were going to hit up Mixx or Mur Mur left, the table basically settled into a bunch of people who were going nowhere… It wasn’t an action table at all, and around 12:15 or 12:30 about 15-20 people did leave the clubs and hit the poker room and two new 1-2 NL games opened which looked like they had good action.

They also were giving out or selling noisemakers somewhere, so it was like a poker room version of the World Cup with vuvuzelas from about 10:30 to midnight.

Run bad + noisemakers = 2 * annoyance.

I ran awful overall on the night and was stuck almost my whole roll, but made a huge comeback with my last $70 and ran it up to about $760. That gave me a loss of $140 and left the roll at about $760.

I was proud of myself for not tilting and continuing to play strong poker, all in all.

Monday 1/6

I booked a room for the night of 1/6, and set out to put in 10 hour sessions on 1/6 and 1/7 (Monday and Tuesday). I learned that it takes an average of about 10 hour sessions at 1/2 NL to start getting comps on the level I want (two nights a week, with some Fridays and Saturdays)…

I got in Monday around 3:45 pm and checked into my room. I tried to get into a positive mental spot with a relaxing shower and some music… I looped American Authors – Best Day of My Life a few times. No, not because it’s the theme of the WSOP on ESPN… Because it’s a great song. I actually heard it on the radio first and said, “Man, I gotta download that.” Then I heard it on ESPN. I also got amped up to Drake – All Me.

It was a little different from my usual throwbacks from Reasonable Doubt, which is the greatest rap album ever.

I put on my blue Reebok track jacket with a white TPC Myrtle Beach hat. I’ve worn it a few sessions and found that it often strikes up golf conversations, which is usually good for the table and turns things friendly. It’s a great way to start a conversation.

I hit the table at 5pm and would end up surpassing my 10 hour goal. On this day, the hat didn’t serve it’s purpose but it was a friendly table anyway. I got into some good banter with about half the table and kept things loose. I don’t remember too many specific hands early, but I chipped up nicely. I played aggressive in position vs. limpers, I made some big hands and got action and they held, and I hit some draws and got paid when I made speculative calls counting on implied odds.

I was up to about $700 when I lost a $370 pot as about an 83% favorite. Again I can’t remember specifics, but from a text to a non-poker friend I know I got the money in on the flop, the turn improved me to about 92% and then he hit on the river.

At some point in the night, a young player sat down at the far end very professionally/conservatively dressed for a poker player. I forget exactly what it was, but I’m talking like long sleeve polo shirt tucked in, clean shaven, conservative hairstyle, etc. He had a European accent and came from a broken game with about $350 to $400. He had a scarf that he draped over his chair, so I nicknamed him Dario in my head.

At first I had him pegged as a nitty grinder, but after an orbit or two I discovered he was supper LAGGY preflop and on the flop. When he had a few limpers to his BB, he’d make it $35-$40. When he had a few limpers to his CO or BTN he’d pop it to anywhere from $18 to $30. He almost always followed up on those with a ½ to 2/3 pot continuation bet.

At one point he hit two pair with 85s in that spot, and it went to showdown, so I confirmed that his range was super wide and he wasn’t on a big heater. A little later I limped up front with 97o or something like that, and there were a few limpers… He made it $16, got two calls and I limp-raised to $66.

He asked if I had limped, I said yes, and I am not 100% sure on this cause I forgot to jot down the action but I’m pretty sure he called, I fired on a J high flop and he folded.

There wasn’t really anything else of note that I remember, but I played until 3:45 am, so it was a 10 hour, 45 minute session. I was in for 300 and out for $1,231 so it was a +931 session.

That got the bankroll up to about $1,675 after discounting a few bucks for some food, etc.

Tuesday 1/7

After playing about 45 minutes longer than planned, I went to sleep by about 4:30 and slept until 10:30. I quickly showered, packed up my stuff and made it out of the room by 11 am. I had to tape some broadcasting work for the day and got to the table around 12:15.

This time I got a new table, and the action was pretty slow to start so I was opening a lot of pots and staying aggressive. I managed to hit some hands early, and managed to get paid.

A big one occurred when I was holding KK on the BB. Again, I lost my notes on the exact specifics so I’m trying to remember it as best I can. If I recall there was an MP raise, a couple calls and I made it $30 and got two calls. As we went to the flop, I saw a K in the door… Whoo hoo… Oh wait.

Flop ($90ish): KhQxTh

So I flopped top set on a wet board out of position three-way. I led out for probably $70ish, and the original raiser called as did the LP caller. (Thoughts on bet sizing?)

Turn ($300ish): Either a 9 or a heart

Can’t remember which scare card hit, but I was watching the original raiser and not the cards and felt like he hit it – one of them almost had to. I think it was the 9. Anyway, I checked. He bet about $150, and had about $180 behind. The LP villain called too, and he had about $150 behind. I’d be putting in 20% of the pot, with a 22% chance of hitting on the river. The pot odds and implied odds were good, because I had to think one of them would call a big bet on the river and the pot was big enough to jam into if I hit.

River ($560ish): Tx

I shoved, original raiser called, other one folded. Ship it.

I ran up a huge stack, eventually sitting on more than $1400. I would have left, to be honest, because a bankroll well north of $2,500 was enough for me to play a tournament or two in the Winter Open and still have 2K+ left to grind, giving me almost 7 full buyins for 1/2 NL and 10 100BB buyins. Given that I have other sources of income and am able to reload the roll if I go busto, that was enough, but I also had to get my comps up to be able to get a room for a couple nights during the tourneys.

I was treated to the worst Rounders quote ever. There’s a straddle up front, someone in MP raises to like $20ish, a few calls, and then the SB makes it $150. He gets one call, then another guy goes into the tank…

He emerges with, “If I don’t call, I won’t respect myself in the morning.” He then puts his $150 in.

There’s a J high flop, the guy who made it $150 moves in for a couple hundred more and the other guy tanks a bit and folds. QQ holds for the PFR.

About two minutes later, after the dust has settled, I ask the guy if he actually quoted Rounders or he was hearing things. He repeats what he said, but doesn’t know it’s a Rounders quote... He then tells me he had his favorite hand… I ask him what it is, and he says, “68 suited.”

I kind of blink a couple of times and stare at him blankly. He says that if he folded it would have hit, and since he called it didn’t. I tell him that’s why you’ve got to see those flops, or something along those lines.

Later, a LAG who I would say was pretty good but had too much gamble in him sat down two seats to my right. He built up a big stack and I was stealing some pots from him and he was making it known he didn’t want to play big hands with me, and I was taking advantage.

At this point, for two days I’ve been playing my A+ game and more or less running like a God. I’ve taken one or two bad beats, but I’ve hit some draws and had huge preflop hands and flopped more sets than I should.

In other words, I feel invincible and on point. Good in some ways, but I tend to get too aggro sometimes.

I wish I knew the specifics of this hand as well, better note taking in the future I promise.

LAG two to my right is in the HJ, he limps along with a couple limpers. I pop it to about $15 on the CO w/ 97o. He’s the only caller, I have him covered and effective stacks are about $500.

Flop ($35ish): Kh4h2x

He checks, I bet $25ish, he thinks for a bit and calls. I begin to think he may be on a draw here or have like KQ, KJ, 99, 88, etc. I don’t give him credit for too many hands with a 4 or a 2, though he could have 45. He could also be floating me with A high.

Turn ($85ish): 4x

He checks. At this point, I decide I should plan a three barrel bluff but try to keep it cheap so that I can basically make a bet on the river to force out draws. The turn gives me more options to represent hands… I can represent AK, and my raise could certainly be 45 as well, I think he knows I’m opening wide on the BTN. I bet again, somewhere around $50. He thinks for a while and seems to be kind of agonizing and then calls. I read it as genuinely not being sure what to do, because I haven’t seen him Hollywood before. I eliminate 4’s from his range, because I don’t think he’d Hollywood that long with those.

My plan is to fire about $65 to $85 on non-heart rivers to fold out the flush draws, which I think comprise a lot of his range.

River ($185ish): 2h

He bets $75. Now I’m in an interesting spot here. I’m thinking that if he puts me on the K and hit the flush, he is making a blocking/value bet. That seems like the most likely scenario to me. I think he could have like TT-55 and be making a blocking bet too. He might do that w/ KQ or KJ. I don’t see him having a 4 or 2 and getting to this point this way. So basically, the vast majority of his range, as I see it, cannot call a big raise.

That thought process took about 15 seconds. I grab $75 in reds, put two blacks on top. I take about 10 more seconds to make sure I am not missing anything and raise him to $275.

He looks surprised, and thinks for about 10 seconds and says “all-in.”

I basically spend about 10-15 seconds protecting my image as much as I can by not insta-mucking and genuinely looking confused trying to figure out what went wrong. I fold and he shows 22, for the flopped set, turned boat and rivered quads.

I have an incredible knack for bluffing into quads by excluding them from people’s range – I think I’ve done it three times in my life.

This knocks me down to about $1,100. I then run pretty bad and run top two into some bad river spots and pay off $40 on one and $100 on the other, getting like 2 or 3 to 1 on calls and feeling like I had to make the crying call.

I went up and down between about 1000 and 1100 and was down to about $950 when the following hand developed. The guy I nicknamed Dario the other day has been at the table for about 3 or 4 orbits, and he’s been making his big moves out of the CO, BTN, and blinds again. The guy to his right is also very friendly with him and making similar moves, and I think they know each other. When the CO opens real big, “Dario” has a tendency to call and be pretty sticky and aggressive.

I am nitting it up at this point because I’m running cold, but I decide to take advantage of the situation and limp a few hands up front and look for a spot where they get a few callers and I can come over the top aggressively and they have a wide range.

I limp Ac3c in UTG+1 and there are several limpers. The CO makes it $18 and “Dario” calls. There are two more calls, and I decide it’s time to make my move. Counting limpers there is about $80 in the pot.

I raise to $70, and it folds to “Dario,” who says something to me that I can’t understand and looks angry. I say, “Sorry, I couldn’t hear you.”

Dario: “You really like to do that don’t you?”

Me: “Do what?”

Dario: “Limp and raise. You did that last night, no?”

Me: “Oh, did I?”

Dario: “Yes, you did that against me last night.”

Me (shrugging): “I guess so.”

He tanks for a while (well over a minute) and then starts counting chips for a raise, stacking some and then adding them back to his main stack, pulling more out. He toys with calls, and raises of up to about $300. He’s got about $500 to $550 in his stack.

As he’s doing this I’m analyzing his range. An LP call could be just about anything, but I’m pretty comfortable eliminating AA-QQ and AK, and reducing the likelihood of JJ and TT significantly. I think he has a lot of suited connectors, suited one gappers, suited two gappers, connectors, one gappers, broadway cards and utter garbage.

He’s obviously suspicious of me, but I think if I come right back over the top, he has to fold the vast majority of his range. He knows I’m aggressive but he hasn’t seen me show any crazy hands. The sense I get is that he doesn’t want me limp-raising him and he wants to be able to keep being aggressive so he wants to send a message.

Finally, he announces raise and pushes out three half-stacks of reds, for $150. Two folds and it’s back to me.

I think for about 15-20 seconds, and confirm that the dark chip on top of his stack is green. It is. That leaves him with about $350 behind. I announce all in, and he looks pretty surprised and goes into the tank.

He looks like he’s deciding to fold and is holding his cards off the table, thinking about mucking, then he puts them back down… Repeats this a couple times and finally announces call and slams down AQo on the table. The board runs out J high and I pick up a straight draw and flush draw on the turn but nothing hits, and I muck. His total stack was $524, so it’s a huge hit and knocks me down to about $400.

I’m sure some people will think that’s kamikaze poker but I still think it’s a good move and he just made a sick call that in the long run would be a bad call in that spot. I probably have AA-QQ there 70% of the time, AK 20% and a bluff 10%. I’m probably not getting into that spot with hands like JJ, AQ, etc.

He needs 36% equity to call, and if I have AA he has 6%, KK he has 28%, QQ he has 30%. That gives him an average of 21%, and .21 * .7 = .147. When I have AK, he has about 23%, so that’s .046. When I have a bluff we’ll round him up to 70%, that’s .7 * .1 = .07. Add it up and you get .147 + .046 + .07, or 26.3%.

Now maybe he had a physical read or something, and it was a sick call, so hats off, but I think the move was a good one against his range. That said, I need to stop making high variance moves like this until I’m properly bankrolled.

From there I lost about $80 more. I made two pair and had to fold it on a bad turn card (flush), which I was shown after I folded. I called a couple of raises with premium hands and folded.

When it was all said and done, I had a 10 hour session and a hugely disappointing $23 profit.

Friday 1/9

After work I headed over to a cheap motel in Absecon and checked in around 4:30. With taxes and fees it’s under $30 a night, and the pictures made it look pretty clean. The room didn’t disappoint. It’s clean, and that’s all I really cared about. Only complaint? The Internet is ungodly slow.

I got cleaned up, vibed out to some music and got my poker bag together.



There will be a key item added to it for tomorrow’s session that wasn’t quite ready today. It’s my favorite poker bag item.

I get to the table at 5:38, and start out playing pretty tight. There is a deep stack ($1100-$1200) in the nine seat. He’s a regular, as is the 10 seat, who has $300-$400. They’re both good. The eight seat seems to know them, so I assume he’s decent too.

I’m in the 5 seat, and the 1-4 seat is a lineup I’m reasonably satisfied with. Weak players or fun-loving players most of the night as they come and go.

I start out pretty tight and after about 40 minutes, my first hand comes up. There’s a straddle and I’m in the CO. There’s one limper and I raise to $16 with A8s. The BB (8 seat) re-raises me to $42 and it folds around to me. I debate folding, but decide to play it since I’m in position getting better than 2.5 to 1. The flop comes down K high and he shoves for over $200. I, of course, fold.

About 45 minutes later, the 9-seat raises to $11. An outgoing, but somewhat douchey guy who I’ve been joking around with trying to keep the table lose calls. I haven’t decided yet if he’s hilarious or a huge *******. I’m still debating. Meanwhile, I have KK and raise to $36. The 9-seat folds and it’s back around to the loud kid. He thinks a bit, but he’s not giving as much banter as he has been. He then throws out a bunch of chips and says he calls. Accidentally (or maybe intentionally?) he threw out $30 too much and the dealer informs him that it’s a raise. He started the hand with about $180-$200 and I have him covered.

I think he might have been angle shooting, but I don’t really care of course. I take the opportunity to shove. He pretty quickly calls and I table my KK, he shows JJ. The board runs out and I hold up.

Later, I’m on the button with KQo. A player in MP raises to $10. There’s one call, and I call in position. We end up with five players to the flop.

Flop ($50): J9Xr

It checks through, and the turn bricks off as well. It checks to the cutoff, who bets $10. I decide to peel getting 6:1 and maybe a few more come along. Everyone calls.

River ($100): T (no flushes)

It checks to me and I bet $35, getting one call and taking down a nice pot. I’m up to about $550.



The next big hand was probably the most interesting situation I was in all night.

I’m UTG+1 and I pick up 88. I limp, and a player in MP raises to $7. There are two calls, and I call as well.

Flop ($28): J7X.

It checks through.

Turn ($28): 8 (rainbow)

I bet $15. The preflop raiser calls. The 10-seat raises to $45. I’m now a little concerned. 9T is very much in his range, but so are sets and two pair. I call, and the preflop raiser moves all-in for a total of about $80.

Action is over to the 10-seat and he shoves all-in for a total of about $380. I go into the tank. I don’t feel like the pre-flop raiser is worth worrying about. 9T isn’t really in his range, and if he has JJ, so be it. I’m pondering a fold, and I do the math. I’ll be putting about $335 more into about $860. I need about 39% equity to break even. If he has the straight, I have 11 outs for 22% equity. If I’m ahead, he’s likely drawing to 1-2 outs, so call it 2 and I’m over 95%. Thus if he has the straight half the time, which is a high estimate IMO, I have about 11% + 48% equity, so it’s definitely a call.

I call, and he has a set of 7’s and my set is good. The pre-flop raiser had AA. This builds me up to a little over $1,000, and I present some nice chip porn.



A few hands later, an old man who has been playing pretty tight limps either UTG or UTG+1. I raise to $12 with QQ. The 9-seat, who by the way is rocking a nice scarf with a sweater – scarves seem to be a trend, calls. The old man says he has a $2 hand, but he calls anyway.

Flop ($36): T88r

The old man checks, I bet $25, everyone calls.

Turn ($111): 3 (putting a second diamond on the board)

The old man checks, I bet $60. The guy in the scarf tanks and folds. The old man shoves for about $260 more. I think for a bit and fold face up. He shows T8, for the flopped full house. I feel pretty good, though it was an easy fold IMO. I’m not sure if I was correct to bet the turn. I felt like the late position player had a draw, so I was putting him on J9. I felt like the old man could have a variety of 10s and 8s, given that he said he had a $2 hand.

After the hand the guy in the scarf said it’s a good thing he didn’t hit his draw, and said he had J9, so I basically had everyone on the right hand.

Later on in the night, around midnight, I pick up 99 in the SB. A late position player makes it $12 and I call. Effective stacks are about $215, I cover easily.

He’s been playing pretty tight all night, but he’s also about 5 or 6 Coronas in and he seems to be making some loose calls and playing faster, thus giving less thought to his hands.

Flop ($24): Ah9x2h

I check, he bets $15 quickly. I put him on an A and decide to slow play, and hope the heart doesn’t hit and scare off my action. I call.

Turn ($54): 7h

Not a great card. He doesn’t react to it, and I still feel like he’s on an A. I check, he quickly fires out $20. I feel like my only choice is to call here. If I raise, he puts me on the flush and I kill my action. I call.

River ($94): 4c

I check. He asks how much I’ll call. I shrug. He says he thinks I’ll call about $30, so he bets $40. I still feel strongly that he’s got an A, but I think he’ll pay off a raise and he has about $130 left. I shove, he snap calls with KhQh. Oops, nice hand.

Two hands later, I pick up JJ on the button. There are several limpers and I make it $15. UTG+1 (the 8 seat) limp-raises to $47. He’s three bet me a few times and I’ve folded, and he’s limp-raised a couple times. Effective stacks to start the hand were $280-$300, and I cover. I debate four betting, but I decide that makes it easier for him since I’m in position. If he has AK/AQ and jams, he gets to see five cards. I’m basically never getting it in more than a 55/45 favorite, and if he has AA-QQ I’m putting it in way behind. I call and decide to play what will likely be a tough hand in position.

Flop ($95ish): JTX

Well, that just got a lot easier. He bets $100. He’s got about $140 more. I shove, he snap calls, I turn them over, he doesn’t but I know he has an overpair.

Turn ($565): Qx

He fist pumps, the river is a deuce. He looks over the board for about 2 seconds and shows me QQ. Nice hand, sir. I count out $235 and ship it.

That puts me down on the night, as my stack is down to about $250. I don’t feel tilted at all because I feel like I’m playing really well. I mostly fold for two or three orbits, and I’m getting hungry and don’t know when the food places other than Fatburger close so I go down and hit up the Chinese place and take about 30 minutes to eat.

I come back up around 12:35 am, and on my second orbit I pick up 22 UTG+1. UTG raises to $10 and I flat. There are six to the flop.

Flop ($60): J82r

UTG bets $20. It’s a rainbow flop, and there are a lot of players behind. I decide to flat call and hope for a raise behind me so that I can come back over the top. The 10-seat in late position calls, and we see a turn.

Turn ($120): Kx

UTG checks and I bet $70 (thoughts on sizing?). This leaves me with $141 behind and I’m covered by everyone in the hand. The 10-seat takes about 30 seconds and raises to $170. UTG thinks for a few seconds and folds.

I wait about 10-15 seconds and shove. He kind of shrugs and calls the $41. I flip my deuces, and he flips 88 for set over set on the flop. The river bricks and I decide not to re-buy as it’s nearing 1am.

All in all I felt like I played really well, and obviously got extremely unlucky in a couple of hands. I also picked up some reads on people who I have seen there before and will likely see again, so that’s not nothing. I thought my pre-flop play was good and I resisted any big bluffs. There was one spot where I felt like I could steal a pot on the river with 7 high with a check-raise, but it was 4-way and 2 players were left behind me so I thought better of it. They both folded and the player was bluffing, so I could’ve done it. Still, given my short bankroll, avoiding the high risk play was wise.

Results: 7 hrs, 20 minutes, -$300.

Bankroll: $1390ish

Stats So Far: 28.08 hours, +$654. $23.29 per hour. Guess I can't be too disappointed with that.

Short version - I crushed it tonight. My reads were solid, I was sensing weakness really well and I made some big hands and they held. I'll have a full report with pictures tomorrow...

I also learned something relatively big at the poker table for the first time in a long time. I kind of thought those days of "a ha," moments were over for me, but by watching another player with big strengths and big weaknesses, I have begun to incorporate one of his specialties into my own game. To a lesser extent, I did the same with some of another opponent's play in position.

GL

you should be having those aha moments all the time

Thanks... and your screen name reminds me of my college days, hitting up Pita Pit in Syracuse after grinding at Turning Stone. Man, I loved those places. Good times!

I've had a lot of aha moments in the past... Maybe I should be having more, I don't know. I've been re-upping my focus lately, which I think is helping in that department. But, there are only so many aha moments to be had... So the longer you play, the less often it should happen, right?

Saturday 1/11

I awoke at 10:30 and quickly packed up, showered, and got my outfit ready to go. By the way, the hat is now about 75% to start a golf conversation at the table through five sessions or show… I’d say it’s +EV for starting friendly table conversation. It’s probably something we should all think about more – wearing clothes, hats, etc that can start a conversation.



I listened to a little music, made sure I had everything in my poker bag, including my battery re-charger. It’s like a little box and it can charge anything off a USB, so it’s like having 2-3 charges for your phone, iPod, iPad, etc in your bag when you need them. It’s awesome!



I Googled for a Starbucks on the way to the Borgata, but there wasn’t one. The one by the garage is closed for renovation, so I hit a drive through at Dunkin Donuts and got myself a breakfast sandwich and a coffee.

I was in the poker room by about 11:50 and saw the same three guys that were in the 8, 9 and 10 seats sitting in those seats in the same order at an empty table… As it would turn out, that would be the table that was opening in a few minutes. I took the 4 seat.

One of my first big hands was a position raise on the button with ATo. There were two limpers and I raised to $15. The SB, a middle aged man who I suspect is a 2p2er and stereotyped as a TAG based on his appearance, raised to $45. Getting 2-1 in position and suspecting he’d play fit or fold post-flop, I made a loose call.

Flop ($95ish): KJ7hh

He checks, I bet $60, he thinks for a bit and calls. I’m putting him on like a QQ, TT-88 or AQ type of hand.

Turn ($215): Brick

He checks and I think and decide to check. I probably fire again here with total air, but I’ve probably got 7 outs.

River ($215): Qs

He checks. I think and bet $100. He tanks for 20-30 seconds and folds. Maybe I should have gone like $75?

After the hand, I saw him typing the hand into his phone, so I’m pretty confident he’s a 2p2er as I guessed. I tried to be extra discreet typing the hand into my phone.

The next interesting spot, I called a straddle in the CO with 66 after two other calls. One of the blinds raised to $12 and got five calls, including myself of course.

Flop ($60): QQ6r

That’ll do! It checks to me and I check as well. Normally I don’t slow play a lot, but I have the board crushed here and if someone has a Q, we’ll get plenty of money in anyway.

Turn ($60): 2x

The pre-flop raiser, who was from that trio of guys from the other night, bets $25. The hijack calls and I call. Thoughts on this? If it was an A or K, or even a J, I might raise and try to rep that or get action from it.

River ($135): 3x

The PFR checks, the HJ bets $45. At this point I decide he’s probably got a Q and I’m obviously putting in a raise, but it’s a matter of how much. He’s a thinking player, but not overly good IMO. I feel like I can get paid off pretty well and raise to $195. He tanks, shows a Q and says he has a good kicker, asks me if I have pocket 6’s and folds. I lied and told him I just had the Q, and asked him if QT was good. He said it was, he had Q9.

I think I obviously could have gotten more money out of this hand. He probably calls $100 more, and we probably get more money in if I raise the turn. What do you guys think the best line in this spot is?

Up next, I tangled with a new player sitting on my left. He was young, and from the first 30-45 minutes my impression was that he was either nitty or scared money. I saw him make some overly tight, IMO bad folds.

I limped the HJ with 44, he limped, the SB raised to 7 and there were three callers. I called as well as the CO.

Flop ($42): Tc6c6x

It checked to me and I bet $20. The CO thought for a bit and called. He felt weak to me, and I put him on something like JT/QT or a draw. Still, I was planning on giving up on the hand.

Turn ($82): Ax

This I can work with. If I fire again, what’s my range in his mind? AcXc, 6’s, T’s, other club draws and pocket pairs 77-99? His T is behind a lot of that. I bet $50. He tanks for about 30-40 seconds and calls. As he’s tanking I decide that he’s not going to call a big river bet, because he’s nitty scared money.

River ($182): 3x

That changes nothing. I bet $115. He thinks for 20-30 seconds and folds.

Things were quiet for a while, and then around 6:20 I played a big hand. I limped JJ in EP and a laggy kid in a Patriots jersey raised to $11. He got six calls. My plan all along was to limp-raise it, based on the table dynamics which were pretty loose pre flop with a lot of raises. The kid in the jersey had also been splashing around a lot, he was bluffy/spewy and had stuck it in pre-flop with garbage. He had also said he was leaving around 6 to drive back to NYC to watch the game.

I raised to $65. The guy in the jersey instantly shoves for about $140. Then things went awry. The 10-seat, who is the same one from yesterday and from earlier in the story, shoves over the top for about $190 total. I put the jersey guy on nothing, but this guy worries me. I don’t think he’d flat QQ+ though, so I put him on like AK or a smaller pocket pair. I call. The board runs out low, and I turn over JJ. Jersey guy shows 9T (pair of nines, see ya – enjoy the game) and the 10-seat shows AK.

That put me up to $873.



A couple times in the night I had considered leaving the table and scouted out some other tables that were livelier, but they didn’t have seats. One of them broke, and the guy who came over to our game with about $400 had quite the interesting look. He was wearing a black puffer coat (one of these):



He had an orange hoodie underneath, with the hood up. He had a flat brim camoflouged hat that said Cali on it, red beats earbuds, and he would pull his hat low and his hoodie over his mouth when he was in a hand.

I so badly wanted to be in a hand with him so I could needle him about looking like he was about to climb Mt. Everest, but alas, he left pretty quickly.

At 7:50, the three friends at the other end of the table left. I should note that the read I had on one of them, I was able to put to use. I don’t know if they are 2p2ers so I don’t want to say any more than that.

Oddly enough, three new friends took those seats. That kind of annoyed me, cause I hate having friends soft playing each other. These new guys did less of that. One of them had big Sennheiser headphones. I view people with big over-ear headphones as having a polarized range. They’re either really good or they think they are but they actually suck. This guy thought he was good.

There’s one limper and I raise to $10 in MP with KQ. Headphones calls.

Flop ($20ish): K78r. He checks, I bet $12, he calls. I have him on 9T or a middling King.

Turn ($44ish): 5x. He checks, I bet $25, he calls.

River ($94ish): Tx. He checks. 9T may now get to showdown, KT just made two pair, and I’ve got KJ and K9 beat. If he’s been slow playing two pair all along or rivered KT, so be it. I think I can get value. I bet $35, because I know I’m looking for calls from weak hands. He thinks for a while and folds. I ask him if he has 9T and he says yes. He says I would have been in trouble if the 6 or J hit. Doubtful. Should I have bet a little less? I feel like $35 was about as low as I could go.

I’m pretty sure that got me to around $1K.



Later, I’m in the CO and open the pot to $10 with J8. The SB calls, and the BB (headphones guy) calls.

Flop ($30): 8d4d5x

It checks to me and I bet $17. The SB folds and headphones shoves for $96 more. I tank. He can’t be doing this with 67 IMO, he’d raise smaller or flat me. I think he’d also play two pair or a set a bit slower. I could see him doing this with diamonds, 87, 56, 23, or an 8. I call, and I hold against QJ. That puts me up to $1,218 a little after 8:30 pm.

Later, I found a nice bluff spot on the river. I floated the flop in position against a PFR with 79o on Q56. The turn was another Q and he checked and I checked. The river was a 6, so it was double paired. He checked and I decided he wouldn’t do that with a Q, and put him on a cbet and give up with A high. I bet $40 into a pot of probably like $65. He said he knew I didn’t have the six, and I said maybe I have quads. He asked me if I’d show if he folded and I considered it… He said he’d tell me what he had. I told him one time only I’d do it, but he could fold face up and I wouldn’t make a habit of it. He folded and showed A5, I showed the bluff and he said he knew it, he almost called, etc. He mentioned that now he had his read.

I knew exactly how I had acted and looked at him during the hand, and filed that away.

There was a new player at the table with a huge beard and a trucker hat. He’d been losing and playing very erratically. Huge beard guy raised to $10 and the guy I bluffed made it $30. I was on the button with AA. I decided to flat it because the beard guy had jammed over 3 bets before with a really really wide range, and the 3better would have to call him, then I’d get stacks in. If not, I’d be in position preflop with really well disguised AA.

Flop ($90): KXX rainbow

The beard guy checked, the 3better bet $25. The board was dry so I flat called. I figured if he had AK, I’d be able to get stacks in. If not, a raise might kill my action. Beard guy folded.

Turn ($140): Brick

He checks. I ask him to lift his hands to see what he’s got, and it’s around $150. I decide my best line here is to look weak and give him the same look I gave him when I bluffed, hoping to induce some spew or get him to call me off on the river. I bet $50, leaving him about 100 behind.

He really stares me down trying to read my soul and I do my best to give a repeat performance of my appearance during the bluff, repeating a couple of movements I made then. He tanks and stares me down, then he moves all in for $115 more. I call, he has TT, and my hand holds.

I believe that got me up over $1,400, and this picture ensued in the near future.



I ended up working my stack just over $1,500 for a bit, but with a green and I could never top off that last row to complete the chipstack. I ended up raising and whiffing and cbet/folding a few times, and the game broke around 1:30. I needed racks on racks on racks.



In for $300, out for $1,382, 13.5 hours.

Bankroll: $2,467

Winrate So Far: $41.78 per hour (41 hours, 33 minutes)

I’ve got a room at the Borgata Wednesday night, and I’m considering playing the opening event of the Winter Poker Open. It’s a $500+60, with $2 Million Guaranteed. Day 1B starts at 10am Wednesday. The issue is, I can’t head out til Wednesday AM and I won’t be able to get to sleep until about midnight the night before due to broadcasting work. My goal is to get up at 7:30, leave by 8, arrive by 9:30 and see if I can still register. If not, I’ll have to grind cash.

I’m also still debating just grinding cash anyway, since the bankroll is a pretty light to play a $500+60.

I’m also looking at Event 8, the Deeper Stack NL event 1/19 to 1/21. It’s $250K gtd on a $350+50. I’ve got a room on the 20th through the 22nd and Day 1B starts on the 20th.

Event 10 is the Deepest Stack on 1/21, for $400+50. It’s a 2-day event, so it ends the 22nd.

So those are all options depending on where the bankroll is at and how I’m feeling.

It’s time to put some goals in this thing. Let’s start with the short-term, then we’ll see how my schedule evolves. I’m still debating playing in that $500+60 tournament, and possibly a couple others, but I’m going to set goals based on breaking even in the tournaments and going busto early in the first and having the next day open for cash. I figure if I run deep in the bigger one, I’ll have less cash play on 1/16, but chances are I’ll have something to show for it and be beyond my goals. If not I’ll play about 14 hours of cash on 1/16, 16 hours on 1/18 and 16 hours on 1/22, for 46 hours of cash. If I average $25 an hour, that’s $1,150. I’m just shy of $2,500 now, and let’s aim a bit higher…

Goal #1: Bankroll at $4,000 on 1/23

After that I won’t be able to play for about a week, and we’ll re-set short-term goals. As for long term goals, I want to be able to give myself the option to play professionally. I’m a bankroll nit, and I’d probably need like 50K to play 2/5 for a living, plus six months of living expenses (let’s say 20K, including some money for savings and such). So the end goal is about $70K. That’s a long ways off.

First, I need to be properly rolled for 1/2 so that I can start to take some shots at 2/5. Since it’s not for a living yet and I have other sources of income, let’s say 20 buyins. That’s 6K. I need enough to take a shot at the 2/5, so let’s say 8K. That will give me a shot with more than one bullet. About 200 hours should give me a really good shot to get there. I think I can get 100 hours in during both February and March, which will get me there. So…

Goal #2: Bankroll at $8,000 by March 31

Goal #3: Winrate of $30/hr over first ~300 hours

This one will require a little run good, but I think I can beat the game for $20-$25 and maybe even close to $30 an hour. I want to really be crushing 1/2 NL when I move up to 2/5.

From there I’ll have 2K to take a shot with, and see how it goes. If I struggle, I’ll grind it back and try again. I think I can hang in 2/5 without too many adjustments, so I’m looking forward to the opportunity. From there, my goal will be $50/hr at 2/5 and about 150 hours a month.

Through the end of August, I’d have 5 months. That’d be 37.5K, and that’d get me near $50K in the bankroll. Stuff happens, you run bad, you get pulled away from the table, etc. So let's extend that goal.

Goal #4: Bankroll at $50,000 by 12/31.

But, I want to leave a little room for shot taking and fun. I’ve never been to Vegas, and I badly want to play a WSOP event. So…

Goal #5: Play a WSOP Event in 2014. I’m thinking the Millionaire Maker ($1,500)

Goal #6: Satellite into the WSOP Main Event (I’ll a lot a thousand or two to this if things are going well)

Those cover poker goals. Perhaps I’ll dedicate a future post to some non-poker goals related to health and such, which can help at the tables.

I'm registered for the 500+60 starting in 45 minutes at the Borgata Winter Poker Open. 2M Gtd! I brushed up on tourney strategy by skimming the inflection points section of Harrington on Holdem II and reading Bond's stack sizes section of Things It Took Me A While To Learn. Now off to fill my bag with water and granola bars and grab a coffee.

Yikes not a good start. Built my 20K up to 24.5, then a big hand. Blinds 75/150 and a LAG makes it 500 from UTG+1. Gets an MP call and I call from the BB with Ah5h.

Flop (1575): 247hh

I check, he bets 1K, MP folds, I raise to 3,200. He moves all in. We have similar stacks. I call... He has QQ so I have 30 outs twice. Brick, brick. Knocks me down to 650. Few hands later triple up with A4. Haven't gotten a remotely good spot to move in again.

I'm out. 88《 QT in a 3 way. Didn't see the other hand. Board ran out Q5675 so I thought I might take it, but no luck. About to start grinding cash.

So it was a rough day all around. I busted out of the tournament in under two hours, when I missed my 15 outs twice for about 95% of my stack.

I went to grind cash and got a super soft table to start, and quickly turned my 300 into 500. I was starting to think I might make back the buyin within a couple hours, but it wasn’t to be. I lost one big pot when my opponent overbet the river and I couldn’t put him on a hand on an A9X97 board and looked him up w/ QQ. He had 97. I knew he didn’t have the A, and I was wrong in thinking that he wouldn’t overbet the pot with trips or better. That was a $120 error.

I took a bad beat somewhere in there that I can’t remember anymore – it was like a 3 outer for someone to pair their kicker on the end or something. I was down to $232 and I took a break to check into my room. I came back and pretty quickly got it all-in with AA.

Someone straddled, I made it $20, two calls. The straddle shoved for $54 more. I called, two folds. He had KQ and flopped a queen and turned trips. That knocked me down to $150. He then spent the next five minutes loudly dissecting how I shouldn't have flatted it, because AA can't improve, while hands like KQ can improve. I definitely appreciated that lecture. He later went on to bitch and moan about how bad he was running, etc, and I just bit my tongue.

I grinded back up to about $400, then got it in preflop w/ QQ vs. AA and lost about $210.

Then the guy on my right straddled. I made it $16 with KK, he called.

Flop ($35): 8d4x2x

He checked, I bet $20, he called.

Turn ($75): 5d

He checked, I bet $50, he called.

River ($175): 7d

He bet $86. I was getting 3 to 1 and I saw him spew by firing three barrels with an unimproved TT on a K high board vs. a PFR when he 3bet, so I made the crying call. He proudly told me he had the nuts. 4d6d.

I had put all my chips across the line, but he never put out more before he tabled his hand, so I was given $9 back. I was UTG so instead of walking away I figured I’d play one more hand. 88. Shove the 9 in, two calls, 88 < QQ < 57.

-560 in the tourney, -300 in cash. I ran terrible, and played my B-/C+ game at best in the cash games. I think I played my A game in the tourney. Should’ve found a fold with QQ in the first spot and perhaps against the AA preflop, though the guy was new and I didn’t have a read on him. On the bright side, when my AA got cracked the guy only had $74. If he had more, he probably gets it in with me on the Q high flop instead of preflop and then hits anyway.

So I guess in some ways I was lucky to run bad in spots that weren’t the absolute worst way to run bad. It just sucks when there are very weak players there for the taking and you are running bad.

I’m pretty exhausted so I’m going to crash for a while, we’ll see if I wake up to play another session tonight or wait until tomorrow.

Decided not to play again tonight. I'm going to try to put in a real long session tomorrow. The bankroll is at $1600, so I may buy in for 200 instead of 300 to protect my roll. It'll depend on what the table looks like. Hopefully I can have a big session tomorrow and Saturday and get back on track.

Things I've had to say today...

"I run so bad... Yeah, I know you had Aces."

"Oh, he hit hearts?"

"I got counterfeited."

I bought in for $300 and had a limptastic table, including maybe the most exploitable player ever. Limps a ton, calls raises, folds when he doesn't hit a pair, then pays off light when he does.

I run my stack up to about $350, and am kind of maintaining between 300-350.

Then, I raise to $10 with JJ in UTG+1 and get one call. A TAG in MP re-raises to $35 and his hands are shaking a bit. It folds to me, and I should probably just fold. However, I raised 66 in LP last orbit and the guy next to him made it $55 and I folded. He showed QQ, but it may look like I'm opening loose and easy to run over. He's got a few hundred too and I can stack him if I hit a set, so I'm getting 2-1 pot odds and Like 14-1 pot+implied odds. I call.

Flop ($80): 9XXdd

I check, he bets $35. Vomit. Terrible spot here. I could make a case for folding, calling and raising. He could have like AdKd, he could have AK without the draw. If I call, diamonds are bad and any overcard is bad. That means that well over a third of the turn cards are bad for me. His bet feels weak, so I decide to put in a small raise and fold to more aggression. I raise to $85, he pretty quickly shoves all in.

I say, "I run so bad," and fold face up. He shows one A, and it's a club. He didn't look back at his cards before turning it over, and claims AA, so I believe him.

I've been isolating the exploitable guy a couple seats to my right and he's a short stack. He's doing a lot of limp-folding and check-folding. He limps, I rasie to $10 in LP with JcTc. He calls.

Flop ($23): J78hh

He jams for $43. I call. Board runs out, he shows 2h4h, and the heart had hit.

Later, a woman sits down and she's pretty bad too. I limp the SB with 56o, and we go to the flop five ways.

Flop ($10): A56r

I bet $7, four folds, she calls.

Turn ($24): 7 (puts a spade draw out)

I bet $15. She calls.

River ($54): 7x

I check, she checks. "I got counterfeited," as I show. She shows A8. Pretty much exactly what I put her on. AX, where X is a 4, 8, 9, T or J.

So I'm taking a lunch break and sitting on like $80ish. I may try to get a table change cause my table sucks right now, but I'm not sure if they'll give me one. The room is packed, the waiting list is 30 deep and it's chaos.

Back to battle.

Meh. I misplayed a big hand but won it anyway.

There's an EP raise to 7, two calls, I call with 5s6s, two more calls.

Flop ($45): 7s8s9x

The PFR bets $17, one of the callers shoves for $47. I flat call, and there are two cold calls and the pre flop raiser calls.

Turn ($280): 5x

Checks to me, I shove for like $310. I get one call from the PFR with like 120ish. The river bricks and my straight beats the PFR's AsQs and the shovers 9d8h.

Later a kid who has been pretty tight and aggressive raisers 3 limpers on the button to $10. I'm in the SB with AcQc. I 3bet to $35.

It folds around to him and he tanks for about 2 minutes. He seems to be genuinely considering calling and folding. He eventually raises to $85. I decide his likely hands are like QQ-99, AQ and bluffs. He has about $100 left. I wait about 10 seconds and move all-in.

He says "Am I really up against them?"

Oops. He thinks for 25-30 more seconds and calls with KK. I hit the Q on the turn but don't improve.

I've grinded back up to about $500, and been fluctuating between $450 and $500. I'm in the game for $500 so it's not really going well.

I also just got two slices of pizza, a cannoli and a soda. The cashier "That'll be $18.69." I hand her my card and kind of stand there flabbergasted.

Me: "How can it be $18?"

Her: "You got the Sicilian slices."

Oh, well THAT explains it. I already had them on plates on my tray so I couldn't really take them back and get regular slices, but I will never get the pizza here again. That's ridiculous. $5 a slice??? And $4.99 for a cannoli is a rip off too. The middle of it was hollow. Hollow! Who makes a hollow cannoli? What is this, a movie prop?

Back to it. Hopefully I can rally and book a decent win... at least enough to cover my lukewarm, overpriced Sicilian pizza and my hollow cannoli.

There may actually be a homeless guy at my table. I feel like I'm at the Taj. More to come later.

I crushed souls. In for 500, out for 1517. Almost 16 hours on the grind. Stories and some hands tomorrow... Now up on the week though. Comebacks always feel good!

Just got into my room at Harrahs. Free upgrade to a suite? Nice. Checkouts not til noon? Runner runner baby!

Plenty of interesting stuff to share... Potentially homeless guy, two people who were each a coin flip to be pathological liars, a great joke from a dealer, a couple interesting hands, etc.

Tomorrow is story day. Saturday is grind day. Right now it's time for sleep.

So let's start with this possibly homeless guy. He was wearing a fake Adidas t-shirt that had the logo with marijuana leaves instead... Like this..



And he had a hoodie on or something and it looked like he hadn't shaved for a while with a scraggly beard and his clothes were dirty... But what clinched it is the dude was eating an ice cream cone at the table, and for whatever reason none of the dealers made him stop (you can't eat at the table at the Borg). He was basically eating the paper wrapper with it and ice cream cone chunks and crumbs were raining down on his shirt, and he did not care. They were stuck in his beard and on his lips, and he wasn't fazed.

Eventually he busted, stood up and crumbs just fell all over the place. What is this, the Taj parking garage???

Let's try pathological liars for $500. There was a guy on my left with a southern accent claiming he's a mini-circuit grinder. He says he follows the tournament circuit and plays small buy-in events, and has been doing so since about October or November and is "about breaking even." He's a big fish in the 1-2 NL game, he's whining about bad beats, is describing strategy omitting huge details and hates playing bad players.

He also talks about betting $400 a roll at the craps table for 4-5 hours at a time, and so on and so on. So basically, this guy is betting huge money at the craps table, sucks at poker and is grinding the mini circuit?

Yeah, ok. Hope you enjoy your AC vacation, bud. He seemed like a nice guy all in all, but I don't believe a word he said about poker or gambling.

Meanwhile, there was a girl who sat down who was chatting up the table and overly friendly, a terrible/gambly player. She claimed to deal in underground games in NYC and play part-time up there.

However, within 5 minutes she was quoting Rounders, trying to do Teddy KGB's accent, referencing different scenes. "It's like, that time, when they go up to that place... in the game... where was that? Buffalo?"

Me: "Binghamton."

Her: "Right, that one, with the cops, and the game..."

She was good for the game, so I humored her. However, a poker dealer is the one quoting Rounders, not the one annoyed by it? Seems unlikely.

What do you think? Who's more likely to be the pathological liar? Tourney circuit grinder or underground poker dealer?

I've developed a good rapport with some dealers, so I was joking around with one her whole down. Although, she told me they aren't called downs there. After she left I told the next dealer she had a tough act to follow unless she had a standup comedian with her. She didn't respond, and I thought I might have insulted her. She is nice and all but isn't as talkative/outgoing as the previous dealer - which is all well and good, she does a good job and keeps the game moving and all that.

So she finishes, says she has a joke for me, and stands behind me and tells me the following.

An old couple goes out to eat in a nice restaurant. They're enjoying a quiet meal, and a family comes in with a few kids, including a teenaged boy. They're seated a few tables over. The kid has a mohawk, and it's dyed a bunch of different colors... Red, green, yellow, blue.

The old man just can't get over it. He keeps staring at it, until the kid finally says, "Hey, old man, what are you staring at? Didn't you ever do wild and crazy when you were young?"

The man pauses and says, "Actually, I f-ed a parrot, and I'm trying to figure out if you're my son."

Big fan of this thread so far. Your play and hand analysis is really good. I def think you're capable of $30/hour.

I'm not sure if playing tournaments on your limited bankroll is a good idea though.

Also, not sure what you do with your comps, but I'd def use those instead of eating at the cafeteria since you get full value rather than 2:1. You can use comps pretty much anywhere besides downstairs. Bread and butter is probably the best for a takeout meal though you could probably call ahead for Metropolitan.

I'll be at Borgata on Saturday so maybe I'll run into you then.

Also dying from the parrot joke. You always gotta watch out for the quiet ones, they're the dirtiest and craziest.

Thanks! Appreciate it! I've been wondering if anyone has been reading since the responses have been few.

Agreed - it's a leak for my BRM. I'm going to try to focus on cash next week, and hopefully next time a big tournament series rolls around I'll have enough of a roll to take some shots.

Yeah, I don't use comps downstairs I just pay for it. I am saving comps to use on rooms I can't get comped for free and then whats left for food at Bread and Butter or maybe Noodles of the World or Metropolitan.

Shoot me a message and come say hi... I plan to be grinding for like 12+ hours so I'm sure we'll overlap.

So this trip report has kind of been broken down into chunks, but I got the pictures up now. First, the attire. It was time to put in some work.



This is my stack when I was sitting on about $1,450.



A lot of the hands weren't overly interesting. I speculated a bit with implied odds against opponents I thought would stack, I tried to hit some disguised hands. For example, with A4 and 356 on board, I folded to a bet. However, with Q9 and T87, I peeled on the flop and raised big on a brick turn, because I knew if I hit the J vs a naked 9 I'd win a big pot, and I felt like I might take it away there anyway. I hit, he led out for $50 and I got him to call off $125 more.

Here's an interesting one though. The girl I mentioned before has been a huge action player and I'm trying to get in hands with her, thus I'm making some weird preflop plays. I think this is something a lot of 1/2 NL grinders don't do enough of. I may very well do too much of it, though.

I limp Ks6s in EP (basically looking to get in w/ hands that can make the nuts or near nuts or disguised trips/two pair). If I hit three six's, K6x, etc, I can win a monster... She limps, an LP player who is possibly a little tilted raises to $12, I call, she calls.

Flop ($39): Q99ss

I check, she checks, he bets $15, I call, she calls.

Turn ($84): Tx

I hear the PFR, who is in the 3 or 4 seat (I'm in the 7), say to his neighbor "Well that just got even worse." He doesn't know anyone else heard him.

I check, she checks, he bets $25. It's a weak bet, he slipped up by admitting he didn't like his hand. I have at least 12 outs. I check-raise to $75.

He tanks, claims KK and folds. I say, "Do you want to see it?"

He says yes, so I show the bluff. Later I'd take the same line with a made flush and get value out of it. I ended up making $100+ in that hand, and $100+ in the next hand because I wasn't wearing headphones. I only wear them and keep them loud when it's dead quiet and I'm tired/running bad and want to nit it up for a bit.

When I went to check out ($1,517), a guy I had sat with early on in the day who was definitely a good player, maybe a pro or part-time pro slumming it in 1/2 for a bit, was also cashing out. He saw my racks on racks on racks and asked if I did that at 1/2. I said yup - I was sitting with you today. He said, yeah, I remember - you did that there? I said yup. He gave me a fist bump and we chatted a bit.

He could be a 2p2er so if you are, whats up dude? Nice playing with you - impressed by your play. Appreciate the props cashing out.

So I went over to Harrah's to check in (I had gotten them to put a late hold on my room since I knew it'd be really late). Turns out I got a junior suite in the Atrium. I think that was a pretty good free upgrade? I only payed like $57 including taxes, fees, etc.

The suite (sorry it's dark, it was 4am):



The bedroom (with some cash):



The view this morning:



There's something that always energizes me about a view of the water, especially in the morning with the sun reflecting up off of it. I've had better views in AC before, but it was solid.

Tonight I'm doing the company party on the AC boardwalk at the Taj (yuck)... Got a room there at the company rate (not very good, but I don't wanna drink late and then have to worry about getting somewhere).

The goal is to cut off the alcohol relatively early, get a solid night's sleep and then grind tomorrow.

Bankroll: A little over $2,600