Got stuck around $600 in 1/2 and when the game died down I took a break and played 1/2 PLO with $5 straddle from winner of previous pot (first I heard of this).
"Playing with a rock" they call it.
Also, the straddle is actually allowed from anywhere (earlier position gets it if 2 or more wanna straddle), and is actually uncapped (can straddle AI if ya want).
Went to Hollywood Columbus yesterday. Drove in at 6 Am and left at 10 pm so a pretty long session. I started out on the easiest 1/2 table ever. I really like the 1/2 game because the max BI is $400 and they offer the Mississippi straddle.
Almost no one does buy in max except regs but it is a nice advantage for an experienced player. Very few deep players used the straddle too. Mainly gamblers and frustrated short stacks. The biggest stack was $300 so I started there at 6 am.
By 10am my stack is 900. Flopped a set of 666 on a Q 6 4 two diamond flop vs Qd 8d. Villain said "Im never folding, so I figured I would get it in before he bricked out."
Stack is $1236 by 1 pm... Took lunch and ate some average General Tso from the Zen Noodles place.
Won the hot seat ($100 each hour 9-9) and figured I would play the $235 $7 event for the Deep stacks. I asked the floor about the chips and found that I would get 15k starting stack with the add on. I figured it would be worth the investment. Unfortunately, after I bought in it only came with 10k stack. Not very deep stack IMO
Knocked out flipping a couple hours later and played cash for another hour making another hundo at 1/2
All in all, I ate a ton. Final Cut Ribeye and Wild Mushroom Risotto was amazing. I played some Blackjack Switch (hard to find in Ohio/Indiana) and drove home (2 hours).
Early in my session at Columbus Hollywood. Bought in for $300 ($400 max) and my stack is $505 at the beginning of the hand.
This is like 9 AM on a Sunday and the Villain is on his phone every couple of hands. Playing a lot of hands and the only guy here that knows what a 3 bet is. Also raising a ton on the button. He bought in for the max $400 and starts the hand with that amount.
OTTH
Hero on button and it is single limped to me. Raise to $10 with 6sTs
SB folds
Villain in BB is and calls.
Limper calls.
Flop ($31) 7s 8d 9d
Pretty nice flop for hero here with the 2nd nuts. Considering there are diamonds and this flop is so likely to spank all of my Villains ranges, I want to bet here.
Checked to HERO and we bet $25.
BB Villain calls and other villain folds
Im really traveling alot now.... Between Columbus and Southern Indiana, there are a ton of good promos. Probably wont play Cincy again til the $500 BI WSOP 5 Main Seat GTD in June.
Early in my session at Columbus Hollywood. Bought in for $300 ($400 max) and my stack is $505 at the beginning of the hand.
This is like 9 AM on a Sunday and the Villain is on his phone every couple of hands. Playing a lot of hands and the only guy here that knows what a 3 bet is. Also raising a ton on the button. He bought in for the max $400 and starts the hand with that amount.
OTTH
Hero on button and it is single limped to me. Raise to $10 with 6sTs
SB folds
Villain in BB is and calls.
Limper calls.
Flop ($31) 7s 8d 9d
Pretty nice flop for hero here with the 2nd nuts. Considering there are diamonds and this flop is so likely to spank all of my Villains ranges, I want to bet here.
Checked to HERO and we bet $25.
BB Villain calls and other villain folds
Got back from Florida on Wed.... Spent a week on the east coast. I hit Jacksonville Bestbet, Daytona Kennel Club, The Isles Pompano, and Hialeah Park.
I rented a nice sized car and thought that I could live out of the car for the week and save the $ from the hotels. I was wrong. Considering, I had over $4k on me, I didnt feel comfortable in most areas of Florida. I tried to sleep in Walmart parking lots but I was paranoid a great deal. In the first 3 days, I slept maybe 8 hours.
I finally crashed and hit a Days INN where I slept for a whole day. After that, I grinded for a couple of days but found that the damage was done in the first couple of days.
At Jacksonville, I made $300 in NLHE. $300 max buy in but a $7 max rake. They do have good promos (high hand with table share). They had a 1/2 PLO8 game with no max buyin and I sat there. Quickly I found that almost no one had any idea how to play this game. I ran terrible for 2 hours but was just even. I eventually picked up a scoop and cashed out a $800 winner.
Not bad for the first day.
I then went to Daytona.... They had some big high hand promo going on (up to $1k per hour) and I ran pretty even there.
I decided to go south and hit Hileah Park. The promotion looked too good to be true.
It was......
They were advertising $2k high hands per hour. $2k per hour translates to $500 every 15 minutes without rollover. Each game has a different payout. Tourneys $50. Omaha $125 and 1/2 2/5 NL or 2/4 HE $500. Obviously competing vs Omaha is a huge disadvantage and not one in 5 hours went to the 1/2 2/5 tables.
I spoke with the management about this being misrepresented on Bravo and I needed a translator. The dealers were all hot chicks but super incompetent. 3 times in 3 hours, the dealer screwed up a big pot.
I went to 1/2 PLO button straddle and the game was huge. A young cuban kid was on a heater from the night before and had $10k in front of him. One hand, the cuban kid pots, and another $3k stacked player anounces All in when he was clearly not all in via pot. The dealer said. "your not all in hold on." The pot was $825. I told her that and she thought about it for a full minute. While she is thinking, they get it in verbally and push stacks in decide to run it twice. The $3k stack was drawing dead. Then for a half hour, they argued that he wasnt all in (even thought they agreed to run it twice). The floor person was lost and went to surveillance and awarded the entire amount to the young cuban...
I ran pretty even in PLO and played a small tourney. Got knocked out and sat at 2/5. I got QQ all in on a Qc9c8s board vs JT for $500. Two hands later, I got 55 in on Td 9d 5c
vs 8 7 (no diamonds). She only wanted to run it once. Lol and she binks the 6 OTR.
At this point, I was up a couple of days and felt myself crashing. I was making pretty good decisions but running pretty bad.
I ran QQ into a made str8 again on a Qs Js 9s board. I guess I could have gotten away from it and considering I was 250 BB deep effective at a 1/2 game, I could have played it passively and gotten paid if I hit.
All in all, I lost 1k on the trip plus expenses. Considering, how bad I ran, I feel like it really wasnt a bad trip. I looked at my notes from the 1/2 PLO8 game and had I won every 80/20 or better I would have beat the game for $5k. It really was that soft.
Oh well, starting fresh at Cincy Horseshoe tonight. Long session coming. Trying to get high card for the $400 BI end of month.... Then next month, the $500 sats for WSOP Main seats.
Should be a good month. I will post my end of month results in a couple of days. As always GL.
Well..... I promised the family a summer vacation to Florida for Disney.... Busted my 4k roll pretty easy on Mickey and Minnie.
Starting over in a couple of weeks....
Plan is to have 1k roll withing 1 month. Play 2 sessions a week along with part time job until 4k roll is established.
One challenge I have had is keeping poker BR separate from personal. Being a husband and father, it is hard to say no. I tried paying $10 an hour from my BR to the budget each week but it didn't work out well.
I need more discipline in this to have long term success. I am considering keeping all poker BR in chips. This should help keep off the temptation.
My wife and I have also considered a move to either Florida or Vegas to pursue my poker career. Considering that I really enjoy tournaments, Vegas would allow me the luxury of playing a ton of low dollar tourneys. Also, the rake is considerably less in Vegas for cash games.
It is a toss up really..... I think that Vegas is the long term destination so why not start there sooner????
Goals. By the end of summer, $10k BR and $5k Savings.
I used to have the same issue. I was in college and worked part time, but played a few games a month and was/am a consistent winner, but I would end up buying "X" instead of BR building. This year I made a decision to stop doing that, and only use BR $ for poker (I've made a few dips into it, but I payed it back ASAP). Between live and online I have about a 5k roll since January and I am happy I started treating it as a business instead of a personal account.
It sounds easy to do, but really in my case I had gotten very used to having that extra $300 - $500 a month of income and had developed the habit of spending it, keeping just a few buyins for whatever stake I wanted to play.
It's not easy, especially not at first, but you are going to have to retrain your mind about how to view poker income and exclude it from any spending that's not specifically poker related. It was very, very hard for me to do that for the first 3 months, now I don't even think about it. While you are rebuilding is the best time to start this practice because the temptation builds slowly and is more manageable. If you are like me you will start getting tempted around the 3k mark, because that's when you can "afford" to spend $1k and still play. Don't.
I took about a month off and my wife and I picked up a job each and have started building savings.
I decided to play 1/2 from our savings until I have a decent roll to quit the job and play full time again. From March-June, I averaged around 1k a week solely from poker and I would like to continue that absurd rate for the long term.
On to the game.
I played 1/2. I only brought $200 and worked it up to $277 within an hour. I was there to gamble anyway so when the 1/2 5 PLO seat came open, it was a no brainer. I dwindled down to $200 when I picked up a double suited run down and check raised pot. 3 callers later and on the river my jack high diamond flush was good.
I worked it up to $800 when the table broke (must move to main game). I was 2nd on the list and moved back to 1/2. Having a bit of cushion, I played more effectively and worked my $200 starting stack to $477.
Having over 1k, I thought about calling it a night but the PLO game was too good.
Too bad because I ended up giving back $475.
Oh well,
I left the casino with 6 black chips and $25 cash. .... New strategy on how not to spew away from the table. Give it a shot. Kroger doesn't take chips.
I have been following Trooper97 on youtube and am inspired to do a Vlog as well. Maybe more strategy. Taking an hour trip to Columbus tomorrow. $40 tourney for day and night and 1/2 NL with $400 cap buyin. Wish me luck and good luck to you.
