Just getting back into it. I actually quit the game almost a year ago right now, and am just picking it up again now. Don't remember much so my game is pretty rough right now.

Why didn't you pursue a career in professional golf?

Sorry for the super late reply here man but I'm glad to hear you're getting back into it. If you ever want input on hands or anything feel free to DM me (I'm obviously not the best player on 2+2 but I'm willing to help you get back into the swing of things). And honestly I've been asked that a decent amount and I think my answer would be competitve golf kind of wore me down and knowing what you have to do to try and make the PGATour isnt appealing to me - I also constantly doubted myself knowing how hard the road is(and even giving it your all golf is the hardest sport in the world to make a successful living at as its played in a TON of countries with players striving to make the PGA Tour and only the best 125 players keep full status each year and on top of that you essentially have no security as any year you can miss the top 125 and are back on the grind. A crazy stat most people dont know is an average SOLID and I mean very solid playing professional has to expect to lose 50k/year until they "make it" in the bigs. Every other sport you have contracts in the minors etc so youre getting paid to make it to the show, golf however you pay huge $$$ ex if I wanted to go pro I had to budget a 5 year plan with estimated expenses (loss) of 250k... its gross, unless you make it then its extremely lucrative and worth it. Also sponsors only care about the big tours so when you're a pro on the small tours they dont care about you and the tournaments first Place prize usually barely covers entry fee, meals, hotel, caddie etc.


Anyways I know that was quite the rant but just trying to paint the entire picture. So simple answer is I just didnt have it in me to go down that path where 99.9% of the people who do fail. I do however have an incredible amount of respect for anyone who goes for it and chases the dream whether they make it or not its very impressive.

And a second post while I'm on 2+2 today I'm in Vegas for the first few weeks of June. So if any 2+2 members are around my age and want to get together and do anything that doesnt involve poker - preferably drink and meet some girls, hit up some events and what not send me a DM. Although I'm primarily going to grind I'm not one to turn down partying... especially in Vegas.

Damn, that does make a lot of sense, and really paints a good picture of how difficult it is. I had known it was tough (from reading and some small documentaries), but didn't realize the estimated losses annually would be that high. Totally respectable for you to not choose that path. Crazy to think how Koepka has got to the top from the Challenge Tour. Though the way you describe it makes me think of poker. People who are trying to make it as pro poker players live or online, just getting by among the thousands trying to be high stakes crushers.

I've just got back into poker, and am beating 2nlz for 10-12bb/100 through almost 25k hands with not a ton of studying (mainly hand analysis) though I've run good I think. I'm planning to move up to 5nlz, but school is going to get busy and shoulder tendonitis (now in both shoulders) is making computer use difficult. Which sucks, because I planned to just slowly get back into poker and refresh until I finish school, then once I settle into a job study a lot more. Might have to shelve poker for now until I have a career job in the fall. Also trying to pick up french for a federal job.

You're still crushing 2/5 live and 200z on stars I assume?

Yeah I would love to chat more often if you're on discord or another platform, let me know or shoot me a pm. Tiger just opened Jack's event with a -2, so I'm hoping he has a solid week before Pebble. Hopefully the USGA doesn't eviscerate that nice course.

Oh ok understandable with getting back into poker more once you're more settled in with a job. Definitely a smart choice man.
And yeah I'm not sure I'm crushing but I'm playing 2/5 live (both $500 and $1000 max buyin games) and 100z on starts with 100/200nl on other sites so still progressing. I want a big sample at 100z (which I currently do not have) and also I believe I have lots to still learn before I think about moving up and competing with the 200z regs.

Also time to make my thread a bit more interesting. So today marks day 1 in Vegas - I'm not feeling 100% as I was sick earlier in the week but I fired the $500 50th anniversary event and busted level 8 here are some hands. Feel free to comment etc.

$500 50th Anniversary WSOP Recap

Hand 1 blinds 100 300+300: (first orbit at the table I sat down at the start of level 3)

Hero CO AJo open to 800, BB calls (the big blind had played 100% of hands that I had seen and two of them I could tell he was fishy - one hand in particular he played awful in.. although he believed he was solid - glasses headphones etc).

Flop (2000): AcKd3d

Hero 1200, BB raise to 4200, call.

When this active villain does this on a board that is amazing for my range his value hands are slim (33, A3) and he has every single diamond combo in his range.

Turn (10,400): 4s

BB checks, Hero bets 12000, BB calls

I really like an overbet here for value as it puts so many of his hands in tough spots OOP and if he jams I have an easy fold. I cant see him checking 33 or A3 OTT and even if he does he's now in a super frustrating spot where he can't really raise into my strength even though that's the only way he can GII OTR without donk jamming. So essentially I'm going for an overbet check line as his calling range would only be better hands than mine here and diamond draws that I can't extract value from OTR.

River(34,400): 5s

BB donk jams ~34,000, Hero folds. Villain shows 9d2d for the straight.

Standard live fold. Guy isn't risking his tourney life into my super strong range here with a bluff there just is no way and I knew that. The hand he showed is pretty much exactly what I put him on.

Hand 2 300, 600+600:

Aggro CO opens to 1400, Hero calls w/ A3ss (I raise this at a high frequency but the blinds are fishy and I want them in the pot with me), SB (old man super nice guy but huge nit calls).

Flop (5400): AA9

SB checks, CO bets 2100, Hero calls, SB raises to 7000, CO folds, Hero folds (lol live poker). SB shows 99 and says he was worried he would get counterfeit......... lol, or someone may hit a full house on him. I know my hand vs him is just a bluff catcher and he isnt bluffing ever so I honestly barely had to think about it.

Hand 3 300, 600+600:

HJ (fish new to table saying this is his second bullet of the day) opens 1400, Hero 42ss in the SB calls, BB calls (I know this is questionable but the BB is the guy from the previous hands and will never 3bet I feel very good about getting into a pot with these two.

Flop (4200): Ad8s3c

Hero checks, BB checks, HJ bets 1700 and says (I think I'm going to like this table), Hero calls, BB folds

Turn (7600): Th

Hero checks, HJ checks

River (7600): Kh

Hero leads 11000, HJ gets confused, tanks for a bit and folds an ace (face up) saying I know you're good.

Other hands:
AQ <JT short stack went all in in the CO I had AQ in the BB
99 <AKo vs loose maniac from first hand. I opened BTN he jammed BB easy call
44 <QJss (my bustout hand CO vs BTN)

So now I'm watching the Toronto Raptors play in the NBA finals at the bar. Maybe some cash games later tonight and then a few more tourneys throughout the next few weeks.

Jesus nice fold in hand two.

Why suddenly playing tourneys as opposed to cash?

Tough loss in game two, but deserved with how they played to started the third and last few minutes of the fourth.

I definitely wouldn't consider myself a tourney player but considering I'm here for the WSOP I figure I'll fire a few tourneys. Still mainly going to be a cash grind. Played tonight after the NBA finals game/dinner for about 3hrs +$308 no real notable hands one turn overbet that was semi interesting since I'd say the large majority of live players look stunned to see them which always amuses me. And to your point about the Raptors yeah they really came out strong in the first half but completely blew it in the second half, they didn't deserve to win that game.

And with regards to Hand 2 thanks man I appreciate it. vs a massive nit I'm essentially never and I mean never good here as ridiculous as it seems. I would be confident in saying he he has 0 bluffs in that spot and essentially any other spot - just picture a super tight/nervous 1/2 live player (which would be accurate if you saw him play and heard him talk about poker). I'm only beating A2 which I don't even think he raises and may not even call pre. This is going to sound incredibly nitty but I have zero hands in my range in this spot vs that raise that I would have continued with. The hand range a nit like him is raising in that spot are: AQ, AK and 99 and maybe AJ and AT but once again those may be calls for this guy. It seems ridiculous but that's reality and it proved to be true.

Thats wild that you have such good reads on the live pool like that. I really want to get into grinding live, and based on what I've heard I could probably beat 1/2 just being able to beat 2nlz on stars. There is a casino like 20 minutes from my home, but in school what would be my live roll would be unable to sustain variance.

Hope you enjoy Vegas, I can't wait to get out there, it's gunna be my second vacation after I have a career/job.

I definitely don't have good reads all the time when playing live, I just wanted to break down my thought process in each of the hands I posted in the tourney. Each have unique decision points that are key to how I play the hand. In summary:

Hand 1: He's essentially and aggro maniac willing to station and his turn check after the flop raise is going to be extremely weighted to diamonds and I want max value if he's going to station.

Hand 2: Massive nit, has zero bluffs in his range at all times. All his value hands beat me even though the fold looks tough to make it was easy in game.

Hand 3: When the flop came and he said "I have a good feeling about this table" and then proceeded to bet I started to think it's rare someone would ever say that in the manner he did with the top end of his range (sets 2p etc). It's likely either a weak ace or air which was confirmed by his turn check and I punished him for it. I think the majority of players especially live are used to the check back turn IP, and then proceed to call what is usually a small river bet that doesn't make much sense from villain. An overbet gets his entire capped range to fold essentially outside of a slowplay which can happen but is unlikely. I can't be concerned about that branch in this spot though it's way too profitable to apply pressure. (It's worth noting that this overbet is unbalanced and weighted towards bluffs for me in live games when I know his calling range is capped/weak vs a player like this if I did have 2p + I would be betting big but somewhere in the 60-90% range to get the call).


Also played the afternoon flight in the $250 Planet Hollywood 250k guarantee yesterday... why I played this I actually have no idea tbh just not worth it at this buyin level as the hourly won't be as good as cash long-term but I figure I don't have shots at large soft field live tourneys back home so why not. After 10hrs of play I bagged a stack (around average but the levels are flying so some luck will need to be on my side for a deep run on the final day) top 12% of players will be returning to finish it all tomorrow.

129/3164. Got it in with about 150 players left vs the biggest aggro at the table AKcc vs his A5o pre and the board ran out 5 diamonds for the tie, then a few orbits later jammed AJss in the CO, BTN called and had me covered with AA and thats all she wrote.

Good news is I busted with the NBA finals game in the second quarter so Im having some drinks and watching it now.

Played two cash game sessions since the last update. One where I had quite a few drinks and put people in some super gross spots and it paid off I won a shade over 2k and the other I lost around 200 playing deep (2/5 1k max) and sober vs a tough table including a player that was a true crusher. I don't mean to sound arrogant at all but the majority of live players I face 2/5 and below are extremely standard weakish regs/recs I've never ran into a player that I truly felt was outplaying me constantly until this guy. To put it in perspective the table was full and within 1hr half of the players left and no one was joining - the other 2/5 game was full and players were waitlisting to join it lol. I stayed around in the 5 handed game (all 4 others were regs including this crusher) with my sole focus being to battle/learn and see how he played knowing it was a terrible game to be in. The game also had a button straddle ($10 where the action then starts in the SB) which he utilized every orbit and played to perfection. Hopefully I can implement some of the things he did in my game moving forward.

For the rest of the trip I'm either going to play cash or fire the $1500 millionaire maker tourney tomorrow. Still undecided atm.

And since people enjoy hands I played a semi interesting one in one of my sessions.

Btn straddle on (1k effective)

Blinds fold, EP (standard reg) limps for $10, folds to me in the CO with K4dd. I raise to $45. EP calls.

Flop $107: AdQs4c
Villain checks, Hero $45, Villain insta calls

Turn $197: 8d
Villain checks, Hero $250, Villain folds.

- Do I need to overbet this turn... Not at all but until I get punished for it it's something I'm really liking as I'm only ever getting called by 2p+ live and I'm blocking his only real set combo - outside of 88 if that called the flop, along with blocking A4/ I have nut diamond outs OTR and still can consider a potsize jam if I miss. I'll also a jam if I hit another 4 for value. If villain has a hand like AJ, AT, Axss, Axcc, Axhh etc. this turn bet is gross for him OOP and I want him to feel as uncomfortable as possible.

Busted the $1500 millionaire maker level 4 in a super gross hand. Open ended straight flush draw OTF hit my straight on the river vs a supper aggro (the player that would have the most bluffs in his range OTR of anyone at the table along with worse value hands) hit his runner runner flush and I couldn't find a fold. Time to play cash the rest of the trip.

Played the most ridiculous hand today before dinner and feel it's worth posting:

Lady on full tilt after going all in on a JJ8 board - once she was called claimed she didnt go all in and the floor had to come over to clarify which got out of hand (think LATB situation). So this lady goes all in blind OTB for $250, MP calls, CO on his third bullet not buying in for the max jams for $450, I look down at AKss in the SB and jam for ~1.1k and MP is super unhappy which I'm liking. Eventually MP calls and the runout is:

T T 8 Q J.. I table thinking I've won no one else is showing a hand...

CO flips over AA and is super heated

MP eventually flips over QQ.. and scoops the $2900 pot lol.

Updates on how vegas finished?

It's been a while...

Got a few private messages asking how I'm doing which is much appreciated. I thought I'd post a quick message summarizing things:

Life since my last post (about 18 months ago) has been pretty crazy obviously with Covid and everything related to that especially in the Toronto area (once again in full lockdown).

I've had many ups and downs in since my last post but all there really is to be said is that poker is still very relevant in my life. I had planned/booked to be in Vegas for close to the entire 2020 WSOP this past summer (basically all my allotted vacation time at work in 2020 so that was frustrating but it is what it is).

In terms of this year I have a very specific list of goals that I plan on hitting both in poker & other general life goals (workouts, meditation, study etc).

I don't plan on quitting this game anytime soon and this year I feel is going to be a fairly big/important one.

One thing I will say is through all of this Covid situation causing casinos to be shut down in Ontario I'm glad I have a full time job. The way I look at it is it's essentially like having a starting poker graph with a profit $ in the thousands every month before playing a hand, and personally right now I don't want to have the stress of having to rely solely on poker income, nor do I believe in my online game enough yet. And considering I enjoy online much more than live (live I have no doubt I can carve a nice living out of 2/5 & 5/T and higher when running but I have literally zero desire for that, my current work life is wayyyy better hours (7:30am-4pm instead of poker which is like 6pm-2am or later). and much much easier and probably close to if not higher paying than a 5/T pro).
BUT with that being said...to all the full time guys playing poker for a living I respect the hell out you guys.
Look I get the whole thought process of Poker is better than work but my perspective as someone whos been in this game a while (you can view my thread). Getting to the top, or to a level you're happy with in cash game poker is extremely extremely difficult and takes incredible self discipline. The work put in to accomplish that is MUCH MUCH harder than the work I need to put in to make a slightly under six figs/yr working basic hours. You may look at this as "working for the man slave work". But to each there own and to be honest I don't believe that there is a true right or wrong answer. Everyone has there own opinion. And that's perfectly okay.

Anyways, I probably wont update this much if at all until the end of the year, or if the WSOP runs as scheduled this summer I'd come back then to give some updates.

Cheers guys.

Awesome to see the update man! I wondered for a while what had happened to you! Glad to hear things are going well. Any chance we see a graph with online results?

I won't be posting any results unless I decide to look for some backing at the 2021 WSOP this summer (and the backing would be solely for tournaments, as I'll always keep 100% of myself in cash games).

Glad you enjoyed the update Sorry for going completely MIA

That is understandable.

U been playing live anywhere in Toronto? Underground? I’ve gotten texts to join a club that normally runs underground but is now on pokerbros in the meantime. I was considering but they never reply to me when I ask how much rake is, but answer everything else lol.


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Yeah I was wondering about this myself. I just accepted a job near Yonge/Sheppard so I'll have to move to the area once COVID settles. I was planning on playing some live at my casino here once COVID opens, but I'll likely be moving once things are normal.

I've gotten a bunch of requests on instagram from these underground toronto poker clubs. Some even seem to be running during COVID. Are any of these semi-legit (by that I mean they're probably still illegal, but are run professionally enough that you're not worried about getting cheated/robbed). or are they all just sketch?

Some of them seem a bit egregious, with strippers, in high end condos and expensive food/drinks. That all just screams high rake to me.

lol I actually live in the area. Like 15 min walk to Yonge and Shepp. I walk the area during the summer (pre covid) with the wife and kids. Don’t know if u know but it’s awesome Taco Bell is there right at the corner. I find the taco bells be scarce in our city.

Also there was actually a game there in the new green condo buildings called Sky Poker or something that I considered going to a while back but never did (I go thru phases of playing since I’m a rec). Prob still around, if U google it. Could be good for u after work or something. Not sure during covid tho.

Update: I'm still grinding. I'm still in love with the game poker.

I'll be in Vegas for the majority of the WSOP this year (about a month).

I may start a new thread or just kind of re-ignite and continue on with this one - I'm assuming people may want some WSOP updates so maybe I can hop on this and give some or just do one big wrap up at the conclusion of my trip, I'm undecided at the moment.

Game *of* Poker.