12-2 was no good... tons of people went 14-0 this week. No 20K for us.

We're now at about an 8 buyin downswing. Made a lot of good moves in this session, ran awful in big pots, and made one bad hero call for a huge pot based on a physical read that proved inaccurate after having been accurate several times all night. So basically I stole a ton of small and medium pots and just couldn't win a big pot. The story of this whole downswing, to an extent.

Well that sucks friend

#TeamDuke pulling away?

I think I'm in the lead still, actually.

Yep... But that's why I'm a bankroll nit. I've got 25-30 buyins before I'd have to move down. Nothing to worry about here!

October 7 – “Thinking bout my master plan. / Trying to get a million ****ing dollars out of half a man. / Staying broke got a n***a feeling like a half a man. / We gonna get this money, though. We just in a traffic jam.”

I was at Parx today trying to turn things around and spent the whole day in a 2/5 game that I was debating changing out of repeatedly. There was always 1 whale and 1-2 fish, but everyone else was pretty solid, so I was debating leaving it. To be honest, I’m not sure if the 2/5 games at Parx are the best ones to be playing in… It’s turning into a grinder’s haven.

Hand No. 1

I have KJ and complete the SB and we go 8 ways to the flop.

Flop ($35): K43

I bet $25, and UTG calls. He’s a fish. The plan is to bet the turn and check-call the river to bluff catch his busted draws.

Turn ($85): 8

I bet $60 and he calls.

River ($205): 2

I check, he bets $150. I tank, a) to make it look good so he’ll try again and b) to run through the hand one more time. His friend is standing behind him and they’re talking about getting dinner.

He says, “I’ll pay – it’ll be on this guy,” and points at me.

I call. He fires his cards into the muck.

He’d later claim he had K5 and KNEW it was no good, but I don’t buy that for a second.

Hand No. 2

Three limps to my button and I raise to $35 with JJ. The SB calls and the rest fold.

The SB is loose-aggressive, he looks kind of like Jim Furyk, and he’s the closest thing to a whale on the table. He’s somewhere between a fish and a whale, but he does have a clue – he’s just overly aggro in some spots.

Flop ($80): AT9

He bets $50. I call.

Turn ($180): A

He bets $75, I call.

River ($330): 3

He bets $175. I tank and call and he has QTo, so MHIG.

Hand No. 3

Later, I’ve God seated the Jim Furyk look-a-like. I’m in the BB and he makes it $20 in the SB. I call in the BB with Q9o and a limper fish calls.

Flop ($55): A97

I have a read on him that he missed the flop. He bets $40, I call, the limper folds.

Turn ($135): T

He checks, I bet $85 for thin value and to charge a club draw. He calls.

River ($305): 4

He checks. I’m pretty sure I’m good, but I can’t imagine he’s going to pay me off with 7x. I check. Technically he’s supposed to show at Parx but when he doesn’t make any move I say I have a nine and he tells me it’s good and I take it.

Hand No. 4

Four limps to my SB. I raise to $35 with AA. I’ve been bombing it out of the blinds to steal all day and it’s worked with impunity, so I actually went slightly smaller here to try to get some action. The CO, who’s been playing pretty tight, calls. He’s an older guy who’s only been at the table about 30 minutes.

Flop ($85): 984

I bet $55 and he contemplates, seems to consider a raise, and calls.

Turn ($195): 7

I bet $100, he raises to $350 with about $450-$500 behind. I tank and consider all three options and go with the worst – calling.

River ($895): Q

I check, he bets $285 and I fold. I should have folded the turn. Actually, I should have check-called the turn. When he makes that raise, I can’t give him any less than JT, clubs, or a weirdly played set/two pair. I guess it’s possible he limped TT-QQ with a club and went a little crazy, but once he bets the river, I literally beat nothing.

Tells Gone Wrong

In my last hand of the night, I bluff-raised A high with backdoor flush and straight draws due to my tell that the villain had missed the flop (same as before, and had been confirmed in 4-5 hands over several hours). A short stack jammed a likely draw and the villain jammed and I tanked and heroed and he had flopped two pair.

I think he knew how closely I was watching, because he had started staring at me when it was my turn to act, I think in some sort of retaliation. Thus, I think his focus on not giving anything off prevented him from giving anything away.

It’s really annoying because I crushed this guy for like 4 hours by reading his soul, then gave it all back to him when he managed to hide his tell. I’m seriously considering going to sunglasses so people don’t know I’m watching them, because when they know and start trying to cover it up, I lose edge.

Also, I experimented with sunglasses the other day for a few hours and some players definitely made bad adjustments because they were annoyed or scared, either letting me run them over or just coming at me every time I raised.

Results: +$6 in 17 minutes at 1/2 ($1 in tips), -$500 in 6 hrs, 16 minutes of 2/5 ($26 in tips)

I’m still looking for my first winning day since 9/17… Since then I have 6 losing sessions at 2/5 and two winning sessions at 1/2 for a total of $25, which is nice, since most 5-15 minute 1/2 sessions you end up losing just paying the blinds and folding.

The good news is despite this downswing I'm still at more than 18bb/hr in the prop bet, and almost $63/hr in my 192 hours at 2/5... So even with this downswing I'm crushing it, which is good for my confidence.

Sunglasses / beats headphones / backpacks are not cool man. Save that stuff for the wannabes.

I get why people think shades and headphones aren't cool but backpacks? There's stuff it makes sense to carry to the table...

At any rate to me sunglasses come down to whether they are +EV or not. I don't like the look of them at the table really but if they give me edge I'm all for that. FWIW I would support a ban on them if casinos ever wanted to, for a variety of reasons... But if not, we should all take whatever edge we can.

Because you look like a dork with a backpack

Man purse more your style?

Says the guy who still had the airline tag on his backpack when he brought it to the casino last time.

People with tells are not able to cover them. If they are they wouldn't have tells. He probably had a read on you or you simply didn't have a concrete tell on him. 4 hours is not a big sample

Best way to think about it is you went up 20 buyins in like 1 week and now you lost 8 of them. Your still up 12 in a relatively small amount of time. In all honesty you are not going to win at 100 per hour in 2-5 over a large sample unless you get into some great games on a regular basis. $50-$70 an hour is realistic and still pretty damn good.

Bolded part is totally wrong. Some tells are there when people are not trying to keep a strong poker face and then gone when they focus on preventing reactions.

Yeah I'm expecting ~ $60-$70 an hour in the long run. This is just going to be a blip on the radar when it's all said and done.

I think the bolded part as a general statement is probably true. If someone thinks to themselves ok I'm not going to give off any tells then it probably won't work. If he thinks to himself this guy is completely owning me and I'm not going to let him get the best of me anymore he can focus all his energy into pots with you and conceal his major tells.

The key is that in the early hands, I don't think he was thinking anything but, "I hope I hit this flop."

Once he knew I was watching him and owning him, I think he was focusing on not giving anything off, and there are plenty of tells that can be consciously blocked out even if you don't know you have them.

I don't think there's much difference in the two things you said Doughboy. It's just the motivation behind the same goal - not giving away info.

There is only a slight difference between the two statements. What I am saying is it is much easier for a player to hide his tells from someone he knows is watching than having the discipline to do it all the time. It's like the guy that decides he's going to play tight from now on. He sits there for x amount of time folding away then next thing you know he's back to spewing again.

I have a question about hand #3. If I am correct he checked the turn you bet and he called. Then he checks the river and you check behind. At that point you were the "last aggressor". But, you said he technically has to show first. Is this correct? I know different rooms have different rules, but I thought Parx was last aggressor shows first??

I'm pretty sure Parx is in order from the button if it goes check-check on the river. In the area, as far as I know, only Borgata uses last aggressor if there is no action on the river. They're trying to change it, which I told a manager they shouldn't do.

That's fair. I think if you told the guy he was giving something away and someone might be watching him, he'd be able to.

Regardless, the point is, it's possible to cover up tells when you are motivated to do it - even if you don't know what they are.

Yeah I was agreeing with you the whole time. I was just saying its more likely he reverted back to his old habits when in a hand with someone else, but when you are in a hand it is serious business. Did you notice this at all?

That's possible... Hard to tell, because it was really just that one big hand where I didn't see it.

Oh my bad i was doing a 450hr month and needed my stuff

In general im not a backpack/headphone/sunglasses/snapback/stare everyone down every hand dork like you are





Prolly not tho




Yea at parx the person OOP shows first if river is ch ch. Last aggressor if there's action on the river or if the money went all in before the river