.

hey just skimmed thread, nice work....whats the main game you play stake wise? sorry if i missed it?

guessing 5-10 and some shotting of 10-25?

glgl 2017 will be following

I played mostly bigger games actually I just didn't do v well in them. I would put the breakdown here but some people know who I am so I'd rather not. People antisweat me and I'd rather not give them the satisfaction.

Home game part 2

With Owens game not running anymore I needed to find another regular game. I had done well there and managed to save some even though I had given some back online. I was very confident in my ability to win a lot of money in these games. I found a website where people would advertise their home games and went to some different ones.

I played in a game that was probably the softest 2/5 game you could imagine. There was no dealer or rake and they would pass the deck. No one folded preflop and it was just a mess of chips on the table in front of everyone. Every hand took like 5 minutes but the action was incredible. The host allowed people to increase their buyin amounts as the night progressed and I stayed until the game broke. I won a few k and the host won like 6,000. When he was cashing me out I told him to keep the odd amount rounded off to the nearest $50 so like $10-$40 I don't remember. I didn't get invited back and when I asked a friend of mine who played there why, he asked me how much I tipped and then laughed when I told him. He said the guys taking no rake I should've given him like $100, it's the best game ever. I figured since he won so much it wouldn't matter but he banned me and I never got to play there again.

I found another game which was a regular group of guys and people mostly bought in for 1k. This game was a little too big for me and it had better players. The host had been busted before so he wasn't taking rake here either. He would deal the game himself and there was no $1 chips on the table just $2 for the small blind and to tip him. They would straddle a lot and someone always won 5k+ every night and I didn't really feel comfortable in the game. One night I showed up and there was a list of people sitting around on the couch waiting to get in. Once I was first up the table started paying me to let action players skip me on the list. I got a few hundred doing this and just went home.

I went by myself to a home game and when I showed up I was greeted by Martin. This was the guy who was co-hosting a game I had gone to with Mitchell. Mitchell had the idea to take him out on the balcony and scare him into giving up his stars and FTP passwords which he never followed through with based on my advice. I had suspected him of cheating because he'd always win a massive all-in when the dealers changed like clockwork.

I was immediately wary of this game when I saw he was involved. He showed me around and explained the rake and I got a seat in the game. The dealer was friendly and I might've known him from somewhere. When I won some small pots I counted them down to make sure the rake was what Martin told me it would be. It was correct and I continued playing. I won an allin and when I counted the pot it was short. I was happy to have doubled up and this wasn't out of the ordinary for these games to have a dealer grab a little extra out of a big pot. The dealer got out of the box at some point and Martin switched with him. I won my first pot with him dealing and it was short. I called him out for over-raking the pot and he threw me the difference from the well. I told him to deal me out and started racking up my chips. The game was already short so this caused the game to break because it was late and the other players didn't want to play short handed. Martin and the dealer said they were going to eat and offered to buy if I came along. I agreed and I waited while they put everything away and did the numbers for the night. The dealer got paid ~1,000 and I was surprised at this, I didn't think that these guys made that much. I had been around home games a decent amount but had never really been close with anyone involved in running the games. We went to eat and I ended up losing that night and wasn't in a good mood. I mentioned how they had both shorted my pots during dinner and they both assured me that it wouldn't happen anymore if I came to play again. I told Martin I would not play in his game unless the rake was fair and he agreed to not touch any of my pots. I came back to play but it was kind of out of the way and I usually only made it a few times a month. If I was losing online and just wanted a change of pace basically.

I had a major event occur in my life which left me completely broke and in debt overnight. I didn't have any money to play and I had to get some financial help from my family just to take care of my basic needs. I spoke to the dealer that was working at Martins and he told me he was quitting and gave me a list of complaints. I remembered how he made 1,000 that night and decided to ask Martin if I could deal the game now that there was an opening. He agreed and said to come to the game and wear a collared shirt. I was nervous and sat on the floor in my room practicing pitching the cards before it was time to go.

great storytelling as always
looking forward to part three of the home game story

LLApex story fix needed


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Home game part 3

I showed up early for the game and Martin gave me the rundown on what I had to do during the night and how much to rake from the pots. He eluded to the fact that I should be raking as much as possible but still gave me a guideline for what % of the pot to rake up to a maximum of x amount of dollars. This could be interpreted as I should deal as quickly as possible thus raking the maximum or I should be stealing from the players so he makes more money. It was very ambiguous and I didn't ask for clarification because I was pretty sure what the answer was and I wasn't comfortable with taking anything extra. Based on the tone of the convo I don't think he trusted me enough to tell me directly what he wanted anyway so I just left it alone.

The players started filing in and once a few people were there we started the game short handed. Martin played in the game and I made my best attempt at dealing for the first time. I made a TON of errors and the players corrected me. Martin would apologize to them and reference how it was my first day and he would alternate with me throughout the night. I exposed cards, miscounted people's bets, lost track of the action, dealt turns and river cards with someone still left to act and any other number of mistakes. Everytime I would screw up I would get flustered and either make more mistakes or struggle to correct the one I had already made. Martin would intervene and make sure everything got corrected and the players were satisfied with his resolution.

Eventually the game filled and Martin tapped me out so I could have a break. I went into the kitchen to grab something to eat and he tasked me with sorting some decks that I would use when I got back into the box. Not long after I started my break I heard him yelling for me. I went back into the room where the table was located and he told me to get $500 for the player who just got stacked. I went and got the chips and then resumed eating. Once I was done I came back and chatted with some players about the game and waited for Martin to let me deal again.

Once I sat down the first thing I noticed was how much rake Martin had taken while I was on break. There was more rake than I had collected the entire night just from the short time I was away. I felt better since I had some food and was getting comfortable and more relaxed. The initial apprehension about the job had gone away and I wasn't as nervous about making mistakes anymore. This went on throughout the course of the night with us alternating back and forth. Every time he got in the box there was a lot of action and I would usually have to get chips for the players who busted out during my break. The game ran until the early morning and when it broke I helped see the players out and started to cleanup. I fully expected Martin to talk to me about all the mistakes I made. To my surprise the only thing he had to say was that I was not raking nearly as much as him. I told him that I followed the guidelines he gave me and he quickly retorted that in big pots you can take a lot more and no one is going to notice. I just said ok and nothing more. He cashed me out my tips for the night which equated to ~$50/hour or a little less. I was happy with this and he told me when the next game would be and we worked out what time I should show up etc.

When I got home I was exhausted. I got some food and watched television for a little while and went to sleep around noon. I had odd jobs before when I was younger but nothing that was this physically taxing. There is really no limit to how quickly and efficiently you can deal a poker game. The faster you are the more money you will make to a certain extent. Pushing yourself to the extreme really takes something out of you.

Things continued this way for some time. As I got more comfortable dealing and became more experienced I was able to take additional money from the pots undetected. Me and Martin were friendly although I didn't respect him. I sort of felt I owed him for bailing me out and letting me deal his game even though I had no experience. When I would take money from the pot I did not benefit, it all went to Martin. I spoke to one of his former dealers about it and he told me that he would do the same thing but take some and add it to his tips. He didn't see why Martin should keep it all. His justification was that if a player caught him Martin would just blame it on him anyway. I never took a dollar from Martin. Once a player noticed that I had over raked the pot and called me out during the game. He wasn't very confrontational, I think he just wanted to let me know that he had noticed hoping it would deter me from doing it again. This made me uncomfortable and I stopped doing it altogether. Once the rake slowed down Martin asked me about it after one of the games. I had been working for him for months at this point and I flat out told him that I wasn't willing to take anything besides what he told the players was being taken from the pot. He stared at me thinking of what to say. After giving it some thought he agreed and said that was fine. He then mentioned how I was a good player and that he had been thinking about staking me in the game so we could both make some extra money and asked me what I thought about it. I would much rather play than deal so I was excited at the offer. He said he would allow me to play in the game whenever it was slow and he would deal. He offered me let me keep 1/2 of whatever I won and I accepted. He also asked me if I could transfer him any money on Full Tilt and gave me some cash for the transfer.

The next game started short handed and I played in it. I would get the door for players, get people chips, put find something on TV that a player requested or whatever else Martin asked. When the game filled we would go back to rotating dealing the game. After the game had been running for a while Martin tapped me out and I went to start sorting decks. Right as I began I hear him yell from the other room "yo, you've got a hand". I came back and he points at a rack of chips sitting in an empty seat and my blind posted for me. There's a raise in front of me with a couple callers. I look down at 44 closing the action in the bb. The flop is 944. The original raiser bet, sb called and I called. The turn was a 9, I bet, the original raiser called and sb check raises, I call and the original raiser folds, the river is a Q. The sb moves allin and I call, he had a 9 and the original raiser is going ballistic because he folded QQ. The sb picked up and was going to quit so Martin offered to loan him money. He politely declined and Martin threw him a handful of red chips and said "here's some lucky money". The player sat back down and thanked him. Over the course of the next few hands I proceeded to win every pot I played. None of them were huge I just was getting 2-3 streets of value from overpairs and top pair from slightly worse hands and never got allin.

We continued rotating dealing and I didn't play again for the rest of the night. After the game broke Martin payed me my tips and then we figured out how much I had won playing and chopped that. He joked about how well I had run and how he hoped that can happen every time we had a game.

When I got home I thought about the events that night and how I suspected him of cheating when the dealers changed at his old game. I wasn't sure how he had done it but I was 99% sure he had set the deck and that 44 hand was too unbelievable to be real. I also suspected that some of the other hands I had won after were rigged and he threw the player a small amount of money so he could deal him in and it wouldn't change the cards.

Another great part to the story. Love it.

Jan Update

Had a good month, played ~190 hours of live cash. I started playing a little 6max on Ignition, I'm gonna dabble a bit when I have time. I have a small project that I'm gonna start in Feb so I won't set any short term goals for myself until that is over.

2017 Goals
[x]maximum 10 MTTs-I played 1 tournament and don't have any immediate plans to play anymore. I should be on track to make this goal.
[x]minimum 2 hours/week coaching or study-I did the bare minimum here which is ok. I have a set day where I handle this stuff and it should just evolve on its own as I do it more and more. On top of that I also read "The Intelligent Poker Player" and skimmed the LHE stuff. I might go back and read that even tho I don't plan on playing it at all. Some of the theory applies to all games so prob worth going back through it when I have time. I also started reading "The Investors Manifesto". I've been working with someone who had a popular PGC thread but isn't going to update it anymore, he plays zoom as his main game. That's been beneficial and I'll prob keep this up esp while I'm learning 6max. I bought a bunch of mental coaching hours but haven't scheduled any. I haven't felt the need for it prob bc I'm upswinging last couple months. Easier to cope with everything when you're winning.
[x]0 flips for hundreds of dollars or more-Didn't do any. I will offer the freeroll indefinitely that I posted earlier itt. That should be enough motivation for me to cut it out.
[x]plan a budget for non essential purchases, make it contingent upon poker results-I think allowing myself $100 for non essential purchases after a winning month and an additional $100 for each 10k that I win that month seems about right. I'll bank whatever I don't spend during that month and spend nothing following a losing month. This should help me prioritize my spending and really speculate larger purchases.
[x]no chair massages at the casino-
[x]update this thread at least once/month-
[x]Do not add any live cash game horses-I had one guy contact me and he was nothing but red flags so I wouldn't have picked him up even if I was actively looking for people. This one should be pretty easy unless some ridic opportunity comes along which i don't see happening.

NSFW

In for flip freeroll if that's a thing.

Keep crushing mane.

Feb Update

Had biggest month of my life in cash, played 193 hours. Played two 6max sessions on Ignition. Haven't really had time to play online, live action has been consistent. Gonna take a look at those hands with the guy I've been working with starting next week. I'm not going to dedicate a ton of time with this unless games stop running. Now that I have more free time I need to set some poker related short term goals for myself.

2017 Goals
[x]maximum 10 MTTs-Played no tournies
[x]minimum 2 hours/week coaching or study-Been doing some stuff on my own Bc guy I've been working with was unavailable and was def less fruitful. I was able to keep up my routine and didn't skip but just not the same. Looking forward to getting back into things next week. I started reading "Deep Work" by Cal Newport.
[x]0 flips for hundreds of dollars or more-
[x]plan a budget for non essential purchases, make it contingent upon poker results-I made first major non-essential purchase of this year. Picked up a CZ P-07 this morning that I will prob use for EDC. I'm not sure why I didn't think of doing this sooner. If you have poor spending habits I highly recommend classifying purchases as essential/non-essential and making a budget for the latter. Not only does it motivate me to play and win but it completely eliminates wasteful spending.
[x]no chair massages at the casino-
[x]update this thread at least once/month-
Did bare minimum here. I still have a list of around a dozen experiences I'd like to write about and everytime I sit down and do that it always stirs up more memories that I add to the list. Some other things I intentionally skipped over I might still write about as well.
[x]Do not add any live cash game horses-I had a former horse reach out to me for staking and I turned it down even tho I'm sure he would've made me money. I really don't miss the stress of having a bunch of money tied up in staking, everyone downswinging simultaneously while I'm getting into big games and drama with horses. It's also nice not having my phone humming 24/7, being able to turn poker off and just spend time with friends and family without being distant and preoccupied with bull****.




NSFW:

Way to go yo

MTG

Sometime in the early 90s the comic book store that me and my friends used to hang out at all the time got a shipment of Magic The Gathering. They had the Revised edition and the expansion Fallen empires. I spent some money on cards and started to play. They had a room in the back with these long tables with bench seats. Most of the people who would come and play here were new to the game and didn't have many cards. The cards for sale at the comic book store were from the new set and weren't very expensive.

I had an old friend from where I grew up that I kept in touch with. We talked about mtg one day and he told me where he played and invited me to come with him one day. We went and the gamestore over there was completely different. It was a huge crowd of people playing and they had every card that existed available for sale pretty much. On top of that people would come with binders of cards for sale/trade.

This is where I was first introduced to gambling in a way. Mtg was originally intended to have something at stake every time you played. The first rules printed stated that after a match was completed the winner drew a card at random from the opponents deck and got to keep it. Once I got into the game this was no longer the case but it was common for people to play ante games. You would both decide on cards that would be at stake before you agreed to play(if I lose you get this card, if I win you give me this card for eg) and then you would play a best 2 out of 3 for it.. My first trip there I was not ready for this but my friend spent the whole day playing vs others in ante games. I just railed him and saw how it worked.

After our trip there he gave me some advice on deck building and gave me a list of cards that were absolutely essential for any deck if I wanted to be able to win in ante games. I went back there and ended up sinking ~$500 in total for the most powerful cards in the unlimited set that was no longer available in boosters.

There were weekly tournaments at the comic book store and the store owner would donate an amount of store credit to 1st place and maybe runner up as well. There was never many players and with me having better deck/cards than everyone I won no problem. There was no magic cards here that I needed so I used the store credit to buy Warhammer figurines that my friend wanted and he gave me cash. I took the cash to the other gamestore to buy more cards that I needed for my deck. This went on for a few weeks or more until I completed the deck that me and my friend came up with for me to play ante games. It looked something like this originally:

4x tundra
? underground sea
? volcanic island
? tropical island
4x cities of brass
5x mox
1x black lotus
1x sol ring
1x library of Alexandria
1x time twister
1x time walk
1x ancestral recall
1x balance
1x fireball
1x mirror universe
1x demonic tutor
1x wheel of fortune
1x regrowth
1x brain geyser
1x recall
4x swords to plowshares
4x counterspells
4x power sink

I was no longer interested in going to the comic book store anymore and I'd have my parents drop me off at the gamestore where I could play ante games. It turns out that my friend helping me with the deck building really knew his stuff and this deck was nearly unbeatable with a 2 out of 3 format. Some decks could beat me the first round and with some cards from the sideboard I would easily win the other 2. Most people wouldn't even know how I was going to win until it was too late. I would bring my life to 0 using mana burn or cities of brass and then use mirror universe to switch life with them. I also had a single fireball I could kill them with too.

Mike Long played here occasionally and was a special player. He had thousands and thousands of dollars worth of cards. He was a pro which I didn't even know existed. I remember telling my parents how he played Mtg as his job and they scoffed at me and said that it would be foolish for an adult to pursue it as anything more than a hobby. I was intimidated by him and didn't play ante games vs him at first. I watched him play other players and there were some things I noticed that set him apart from other players I had met. First off he was constantly chatting throughout the match and even if the other player didn't engage him he would talk to himself or any of the people watching the game. Most of his comments were in regards to how you played or subtle putdowns. Another thing was he was always involved in debates over the rules. He would often disagree with the gamestore employees and not let up until he had his way. He also would only use cards with black borders and basically treat white border cards as trash as well as put down players for using them. The beta set which was black was more expensive than unlimited but I think it contained the same cards. He didn't keep his decks in plastic sleeves and had more decks than anyone I've ever seen. It seemed like everytime he came around he had a new deck he was trying out. He got caught with a cadaverous bloom on his lap in a tournament in the late 90s. I found this post which sums him up better than I can(I never personally saw the chair perch):
I immediately made it my goal to upgrade all cards in my main deck to black borders. This was mostly because I saw him as someone to respect in mtg and his opinion of me mattered at that point in my life. I was doing well in the ante games anyway so having completed my deck it felt good to have a new goal to complete. I would seek out matches for the most expensive cards in beta but a lot of times people didn't wanna play for that much, especially since I wasn't losing often and there wasn't a ton of new faces showing up. I had to grind a lot of games for lower priced cards and trade/sell them and buy from other players to get the moxes, lotus and expensive blue cards. I also went back to the comic book store for occasional tournaments they would do a monthly one that paid $200 or so.

Mike didn't come around for a long time, I wasn't sure if he was from the area or just came every now and then for some reason. Eventually he turned back up and I had a chance to play him. He was using some type of discard deck that was mostly black and had 4 racks. He crushed me the first match. This was a pretty bad matchup for my deck in general but I had some cards in my sideboard that made it closer but he still ended up winning 2 out of 3. He would play for whatever I wanted which was good but other people wanted to play him as well and he was mostly interested in trying out his new decks vs a bunch of different types of decks and didn't care about winning or losing valuable cards. He would even play non ante games vs some people. I got a chance to play him on several occasions and I did win sometimes. Without fail if he was going to lose he would always find some sort of rule to argue about to try and sway the match in his favor. When he did lose, the condition of the card he promised would always be slightly worse than the one you were putting up. If you gave him any pushback he would argue that as well. Buying or trading cards with him was a nightmare and I simply didn't do it, he always attempted bullying kids into giving him the best end of the deal.

I played mtg throughout middle school until the homelands expansion. My parents would never allow me to travel for any big tournaments which was frustrating. I would spend a lot of time sitting in my room just running through games by myself on the carpet looking for ways to make tweaks or new cards when expansions came out that I could possibly add. Ante games became almost nonexistent and some places wouldn't even allow it. They banned balance and restricted swords to plowshares which made my deck a lot weaker. I experimented with adding autumn willow/abyss but I could no longer dominate the same way I did before. The most popular form of mtg that people started playing was where you constructed decks that were 40 cards minimum I think from the Revised set and anything that came out later(with a banned/restricted list). This made thousands of dollars worth of cards nearly obsolete for me and made me want to quit. I still had decks that qualified for what people were playing but I wasn't enjoying it as much. I liked it better when matchups were really lopsided in my favor and I could profit. Playing close matches for fun felt pointless. I ended up just selling my expensive cards in order to buy other things and gave the common ones away.

Great choice with the CZ!! I went with a CZ 75 SP-01 Tactical and a CZ PCR for carry. For a polymer DA/SA gun you will not beat the P-07/P-09. Sick guns for the money. If you ever want to do any work on it check out Cajun Gun Works. My only complaint with the CZ's is the stock Double action is a bit too heavy. I like it around 8-9 lbs and mine came stock at about 15-16. Way too heavy when you've got a 4.5lb Single action. The P-07 is a bit better from what I recall. If you swap out the decocker for the safety this is pretty much irrelevant. I do think a decocker DA/SA system is superior to a single action cocked and locked for carry purposes. I also think the safety on the P-07 is not pronounced enough to be reliably disengaged in a high adrenaline situation.

Stealthgear has some nice holsters you may want to check out.

Write more


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Yeah I'm pretty happy with this purchase. I was deadset on getting a striker fired 9mm and was spending a ton of time reading about them all. At the last minute I just went with another DA/SA Bc that's what I'm already accustomed to. I might swap out the decocker still, I'm undecided. I do appreciate your post ty.

I'll get smth up, can't guarantee when.

March Update

I got sick again and layed around for almost a week doing nothing but watching shows. Played 210 hours live and two short sessions on Ignition. Finally got all setup on there with hotkey program and HUD/cardcatcher, makes it a lot easier so I'll prob play more going forward. I've played less than 5k hands total so far and I'm breakevenish.


2017 Goals
[x]maximum 10 MTTs-Played no tournies
[x]minimum 2 hours/week coaching or study-I found a way to squeeze a couple extra hours into my regular routine and just replaced time I was wasting. I've been reading Deep Work and it's really made me realize how bad I am at quickly learning complicated things. Most of what I've done this year up until this point has mostly been beneficial but I probably need 4 hours/week of uninterrupted concentration in order to really make progress. I'm going to toy with this during April and try to find the right balance.

I had a tough time dealing with swings mentally in March. I had one big loser where I booked a mental coaching session as soon as I got home. I got 10 hours last year and haven't used one yet. I've thought about booking one but you have to schedule it so far in advance that it's difficult for me. Last week I just broke down and did it anyway.
The last time that I did one was late last year and it was extremely beneficial for me. It's hard to explain just how powerful the experience was but if you've never tried it I highly recommend it.
[x]0 flips for hundreds of dollars or more-
[x]plan a budget for non essential purchases, make it contingent upon poker results-spent next to nothing. Bought some small things here and there that I wanted. I'm just banking the extra for smth I decide I want in the future.
[x]no chair massages at the casino-
[x]update this thread at least once/month-got two updates in during March. I'll try and do the same in April, one monthly update and one writeup from my past.
[x]Do not add any live cash game horses-Its funny looking back on it and how much I valued diversification of my action. Having money freed up and simplifying everything this year has been really beneficial. I think that I kind of got addicted to having so much action and sweats that I was blinded by the downsides. Being able to focus on myself and my own play has really helped reduce stress as well. I never have this looming fear of a large % of my BR being inaccessible for undetermined periods of time anymore. I spend next to no time messaging people throughout the day. The only thing I miss is the money and I can essentially just allocate those funds somewhere else and expect a similiar return if I'm being smart about it.



NSFW:

Home Game Part 4

I was certain that Martin was cheating in the game and I felt bad taking part in it. Dealing poker until the sun came up was really making me question my sanity. I told myself that there was a chance I was just being paranoid about the entire thing and that I had no evidence of wrongdoing. I think in my mind it was such a good thing I had going that I wanted to believe it was real, even though my instincts were telling me otherwise. I decided that I would continue to play in the game and if Martin ever admitted to cheating I would tell him I couldn't be a part of it. Things continued as they had been for a short time. Cooler hands and bad beats being pushed my way whenever he let me play in the game. Every time I got out of the box it was an absolute bloodbath with multiway allins as soon as we switched dealing. I was always getting chips for players the first or second hand he dealt. I started to notice suspicious hands going to new players that the game was built around. At the end of the night he often wouldn't cash out the big winners and give them a story about how he had lent out too much and to come to the next game for payment. He was also starting to get behind on paying me. He'd ask for Full Tilt transfers and never quite settle up completely. He always seemed to keep a balance with me that wasn't large enough to make an issue of and not small enough to not bother me. He also started hounding me about the rake again. I suspected him of having money trouble even though he appeared to be making money hand over fist.

There was a group of players who were all underage who would play regularly. These players would show up when the game started and play until it broke. I'd say the core group was 4-6 guys and they were all pretty cool. They'd drink free beers, smoke complimentary cigarettes and eat for free. They all tipped me quite well even though they were playing in a game that was overraked so much that it was unbeatable. Martin stopped asking me to play and didn't tell me why. I noticed the shenanigans with the set decks weren't slowing down but he had shifted the winning hands to be dealt to the regulars instead. He would always talk to them each in private after the game I think in order to keep what they were saying from me. Eventually I just started making comments about the rigged hands when we were alone and surprisingly he didn't deny it. He made a comment about how he was balancing the books and if he didn't intervene there would be no game anymore. I didn't full understand until I heard him go over all the tabs of the regulars after the game one night. These guys were in for big numbers. Most of them were teenagers and some owed him low 5 figures. It was crazy for the stakes they were playing. It was all rake, none of the fish were winning either. Martin confided in me that he had 50k in outstanding debts from players. Sometimes when the game was all regs he would make up some excuse why he had to leave and break the game. It wasnt enough for him to let them play against each other, get raked to death and owe him more money. He wanted cash in hand from fish getting cheated or else he called it a night. Knowing exactly what was happening in this place made me constantly consider quitting the game altogether. I hated what I had become and loathed having to drive there and put myself through another night of dealing.

There was a new casino that was much closer to my house than any of the others. The first night the poker room opened I went there and stood in line for a long time in order to get in. They had taken a list of names for different games prior to opening and not knowing this I realized I wouldn't be able to play once I got there. A friend of mine said he had gotten on all the lists and I could use his name to get in but I just couldn't play the same game as him. I got to the front of the line and gave the false name and said I wanted to play 5/10. The floor person gave me a look because the name was obviously a different ethnicity than mine but he waved me in anyway. They didn't have a cage functioning yet so at the end of the line there was a woman with a cart full of chips she was selling to all the players before they went to their tables. I handed her 1,500 in all $20 bills I had gotten from the home game and she started counting them. She lost count at some point and started over. About halfway in she got flustered by all the players in line and being her first day, just put the money away without finishing counting it. She then handed me a rack of red chips and a rack of green chips. I quickly walked off with the quick double up and set $1,500 on the 5/10 game. I took the extra money she had given me to the bathroom. I jammed all the other green chips into my pockets before I walked out and got seated at the table to play. The game was amazing and I ran very hot. Alot of people were buying in short and I had alot of red chips in my stack. One of the floor people came up to me and asked if I needed a color up. I was paranoid the whole session about what happened when I bought in so I declined. She later came back and told me they were running low on red chips and really needed to buy some from players. I agreed and told her to bring me the big chips first before I gave her the red chips. I was still unconvinced that this wasn't a ploy to get the 1,500 back from me. She came back and colored me up and that was it. The session ended and I was up a lot. Driving home that night I was thinking about quitting the game and imagined being able to play poker full-time at the casino and never having to deal again.

Eventually I got fed up with Martin and told him I wasn't going to deal anymore. He was a despicable person and the money wasn't worth it. I would play 5/10 on the days there was no game and my results were mixed. The daily swings would usually be a few k per session and it depressed me to think about what I had to go through at the game in order to make that money back when I lost. I figured I had enough money to play at the casino and that I would be much happier this way. I also looked forward to being straight and not having to lie, cheat and steal to get by. I invited a couple of the regs from the home game over to my place after I quit and told them everything that was going on. I felt obligated to tell them the truth and I couldn't stand to watch them become his puppets and stress about how much money they owed him. They didnt believe me at first and it took some convincing to make them understand all the **** he was up to but this was important to me and it felt like a weight had been lifted.

I was not ready to play poker full-time. I didn't have enough money to play or the mental fortitude to deal with the swings, especially being under rolled. It wasn't long before I couldn't play the 5/10 game anymore and I had to stick strictly to 2/5. I probably would've been ok if I had done that but Stars and Full Tilt were in full swing and I was firing crazy in tournaments. Every Sunday I would have 10-20% of my roll in play and I was not good enough to beat the stakes I was playing. I think I had 3 consecutive losing months before I was flat broke.

Having no one else to turn to I eventually contacted Martin. He still owed me some money so my first interactions with him were just leaning on him to collect. He knew I was hard up and offered to let me deal again. This was my worst nightmare and probably one of the lowest points in my life. One of the regs had taken over for me after I quit but Martin still wanted me back. My first game back they both gave me the lowdown of everything that was going on. More of the same, rigged decks and over raked pots. This time Martin wanted to set the deck for me and have me deal the cooler. He took me into the backroom and showed me how he did it. I would always alternate between two decks. One would be rigged and one wouldn't be. I had to fake shuffle and cut the rigged one and deal the other as normal. He was so greedy that he had multiple rigged hands in the stacked deck so I even had to put the muck pile underneath before doing the fake shuffle/cut. He left me back there by myself and told me exactly where the button should be when I tapped the dealer out. I practiced for a bit and came out when I felt ready but was still very nervous. When it came time to deal the cooler I just shuffled it normally from muscle memory and Martin looked devastated. After the game both of them asked me what happened and I said I just froze up. I went home and contemplated what I should do. When I woke up the next morning I didn't even want to get out of bed. This is the lowest I had felt in a long time. Broke, no prospects and alone. I layed around all day until gathering the nerve to text Martin that I wasn't coming to the game or any other games and that I wanted my money as soon he could give it to me.

April Update
Played 200 hours live and made no money. I got to play a lot of long sessions in big games, maybe more than ever in such a short span. I made some observations about myself related to poker that should help. I played some online and made a little bit.

2017 Goals
[x]maximum 10 MTTs-Played no tournies
[x]minimum 2 hours/week coaching or study-Started smth new here. I'm taking one of the days that I take off from playing poker every week and dedicating that to study. I find during that day I procrastinate and find distractions so that I end up spending less time with it than if I had just started a session and played instead. Part of the reason is my process isn't that great rn and so even when I'm working I end up wasting time and not using it all doing the right things yet. I know some highly successful people in poker and it's not as easy as just mimicking what they are doing unfortunately.

I did a mental coaching session and focused on areas where I felt I was lacking the most. I'm keeping running lists so that when I pay someone for their time it is well spent and directed at the right things. If I have nothing specific then sitting out coaching sessions and working on my own process and improving it is my plan for now.
[x]0 flips for hundreds of dollars or more-
[x]plan a budget for non essential purchases, make it contingent upon poker results-Kept up with this. So far this year I haven't been in a spot where there's a non essential item that I desperately want that's outside of my budget yet.
[x]no chair massages at the casino-
[x]update this thread at least once/month-Got two in during April. Plan on the same for May.
[x]Do not add any live cash game horses-



NSFW:

Keep writing, great thread.

Can you include YTD results in your monthly updates including hrs?

what up?
just looking for an update

Thanks, no not going to put public results. Sorry if you enjoyed that earlier, it feels attention whorish to me.
yeah sorry

May update:

Played 217 live poker hours and made a small amount. I was in biggest downswing of my life at one point. I played some online and lost small. I got sick towards the end and played a couple shortish sessions where I felt miserable and couldn't play well. I'm just getting over it now, that's why I'm late with this.



2017 Goals
[x]maximum 10 MTTs-Played no tournies in May
[x]minimum 2 hours/week coaching or study-Really slacked off here. One of my contacts isn't responding to my messages for some reason. Without a standing appointment it's easy to make excuses and spend time doing other things. I've been playing so much that I have v little free time as is. I made plans to start working with someone else starting next week.
[x]0 flips for hundreds of dollars or more-
[x]plan a budget for non essential purchases, make it contingent upon poker results-This is easy at this point. I've really come a long way in this area. My only real challenge is clearly defining what is/isn't essential for me personally.
[x]no chair massages at the casino-
[x]update this thread at least once/month-Did bare minimum here. When I look at my list of things in my life I want to write about I'm kind of apprehensive about sharing some of them and that makes it easy to put off.
[x]Do not add any live cash game horses-

NSFW:

I just don't get the appeal of asian chicks. I think they are the least attractive of them all. But to each is own.

Keep chugging along OP

M8 you got to have that yellow fevah!