dont bluff obv(or use bigger sizings to put presure on theirs 4/5 pairs), value bet thin

Hey guys, pretty frustrated but finally booked a winning session. Final tabled BB 55 with a bunch of whales and they just push the variance so much that if you're not getting cards or w/e it's very difficult to play against. ie like they 3x pre off 30bb stack sizes, never fold to 3 bets, etc etc.Then i had a bunch of other deeps but lost a lot of important all ins. Oh well, felt wayyyy better today and cut out all the distractions and BS. I think getting an intense workout in the morning helped a lot to keep me calm.

@colin: It's sort of a broad question and obviously there's a lot of strategical adjustments we could make. A lot of it depends on stack sizes/payouts etc. To give a few pointers:

-Keep pre flop ranges very solid especially when you are from earlier positions where loose/stationy players have position on you. Essentially, if there's a high purpensity they will flat you when you are OOP, it would be wise to have hands that are good for barreling/ check calling etc...so maybe T9ss or KJo would be a better open than A8o or Q8ss.
-If they have a high likelihood of 3 betting you or are over-3 betting, tighten pre flop range...include traps when calling 3 bets, and 4 bet lighter.
-There are certain board textures where sometimes I have a spidey sense based on timing tells or w/e that a villain won't want to fold. In those cases I go thinner for value and just don't bluff with a high frequency.
-Delay c bets against stations and take more creative bluff lines


Overall, just work on your game as much as possible and think logically about how to respond to certain player types or table dynamics and manipulate them in your favour. It's easy to get caught up in emotional battles when a player keeps getting the best of you it seems when you're deep in a tournament. Don't give into your "monkey brain" urges and just focus on employing a good exploitative strategy.

tried playing only around 4-6 tables all day today and enjoyed it much more+found myself much less stressed. ran aids in a couple massive pots in 530 coop+1k coop which basically made the difference between a nice winning day and a losing day. still finding this run to be absurd but i guess it's better not to worry about it.

here's a hand that's really bothering me from just now. the villain is "prebz":

http://www.boomplayer.com/en/poker-h...615_4464C17E26

We were approx. 20 off ITM and I just moved to this table. I'm really not sure whether betting flop or not is best here but I think checking weaker Ax is better. I'll let you guys duke it out but I'll quickly sum my thoughts: my bluff is very good theoretically, but if the villain can't even find a fold with this hand it is lol bad.

disclaimer: 1k hand might be little over my head.
i construct my checking range otf same way as you do ( pbb checking that AT also ) but i'm not delighted with our overall play here. villains range is pretty narrow and i dont think we have enough of the stack otr to x/raise and fold out any 2p sincerely, he is getting 5:1 or smt like that and he needs just to find us 1 or 2 bluffs and his call is snap printin. on the other hand we dont have JT in our range, we dont have QQ(or have like 1 combo since i think we would fold QxQc ott for sure as it blocks his fd bluffs), we most likely dont have AK/AQ... conclusion is that this too thin of an raise otr overall with this spr.

what is your x/r value on river?
what are you trying him to fold (u know that he can have 99 and some AA/KK/AK/AQ) ?

imo given stack sizes, line etc u dont have enough FEQ on river (and imo enough value hands) and you are just lvleling your self and fancy playing it imo

Thanks Walmart and Re8uz. Next time I'll get them

AT hand is a punt on the river, it's a call or fold spot, jamming makes no sense against such a polarized range when our only value hands are AA and KK, and if villain holds an ace, that leaves you with just 4 value combinations.

Jamming doesn't really fold out a lot of hands in this spot that we beat, because villain either has a hand like 87cc, or he has 22/99/AQ with AJ and AA at low frequencies.

Also, this thinking is theoretically bad, but in a $1k buyin the mincash will be much higher relative to your bankroll, so protecting your stack 20 off ITM makes sense.

I think the main problem with bluffing this hand/spot is that you just don’t have enough behind bc you rep very few combos you want to use a (very) large sizing usually and that’s not really possible here

I can understand the x/r and why you did it, you probably fold his hand if you're villain, right? Few people bluff in that spot, specially with the mtt stuff going on/you are risking your tournament life.

But people don't do what they are supposed to do, 95% of people will think "I haz 2-pair" and "it's so small" rather than "villain is never bluffing or valuebetting worse".

A few tips on x/r the river, the best spots to do it are those:

1- villain has a lot of thin valuebets in his range
2- villain has few nutted hands in % of his range
3- villain has bluffs in his range
4- you can represent a hand
5- neutral/bad runnouts for villain(never bluff in good runnouts for his range)
6- use a sick sizing(math on x/r goes poorly when it comes to money you invest/villains odds up until you are 3xing the bet, specially between the min-raise to 3x area).
7- 2x pot river raise is the magical number if you want people to fold very big hands. But it should be rare to be that deep on mtts.

Gl, man!
Vaaaaamooooo

Aight, villain is never bluffing.

I think you misunderstood what I said, villain has bluffs in his range, while walmart's raise is very value-heavy if population is raising the river. What was the last time you've seen someone bluff with walmart's line?

I've looked at more than 200 river raises I called in my last 450k hands and found out only 3 bluffs across 50z-200z, all the other raises were valuebets, and 2 of those bluffs were made by the same reg, the other was a whale.

hey guys, looks like that hand generated a lot of discussion! i read through all of your comments and appreciate the insights.

@re8...my value range is AA and KK.

I thought a lot about the hand and asked a few people about it. I'll just write what I was thinking in game and what my analysis of it has been since:

In game I was thinking a trap with AA is much more likely than KK from population, and blocking top set is quite relevant here. Obviously, most of his range is not traps and it's hands like suited broadways/suited Ax (although i think A9ss is quite a loose peel with good regs behind). By the river I felt his 2 most likely holdings are AQ and 99/ with some JT liekly of clubs (for value), and his most likely bluffs are QT and QJ, often of clubs.

In general, a lot of players don't bluff river with QT or QJ type holdings here because they think they have sd value or something...tbh good regs probably usually do barrel them off because they're aware when they're bottom range. That being said, when I call twice my range is quite strong imo and people aren't bluffing into super strong ranges that much. Honestly, in game I felt like he's a good reg and is mostly value betting here, he probably notices I'm a 30$ ABI reg 20 off ITM with so little fold equity behind...it's a spot I'm NEVER bluffing, and always AA/KK, so, I figured I could produce some hero folds. It is quite gross that I don't have many chips behind and thus not much fold equity. In theory if I'm never bluffing he can fold 99, but he's just not, nor is anyone. I did think he could fold some better hands though, I guess I was wrong.

There's these spots where I pat myself on the back for actually having a few bluff combos where almost no regs do, and when I get spite called I just tell myself "nice to know my entire value range gets paid". BUT I need to stop bluffing when people won't fold...no matter how good a bluff is theoretically, it sucks if people aren't folding the hands they're supposed to!

So yeah, on the river if we're gonna bluff (we only need literally like 1 combo prob if we're talking about being balanced etc), because AA/KK are the only hands I can have for value, and not much chips behind. ATdd seemed like a good candidate because it blocks his traps/value hands, does not block the broadways club blufs he could have.

That being said, all the theory stuff is pretty overrated in tourneys imo and we need to be aware of it, but produce lines that make the most $ in game and exploit the inefficiences of the population. I think guys lose a lot of EV in hands trying to play balanced or how piosolver would tell them to play (in general, not always). That was a big rant.

Sup my d00ds? Hope WCOOP was better for you guys than it was for me! If I had a $ for every massive flip/cooler/suckout I've had in the last 6 months in the final 18 of tourneys, I would haev enough money to buy out Amaya.

However, on a much more positive note, the Sklansky $ are piling up to the ceiling. I've made enough theoretical money in the last 6 months that I am swimming in it.

Not gonna sit here and whine because I ran way above EV shipping a WCOOP event b2b years, but this year it was ****ED. Feels like I didn't win one relevant pot and was beginning to question whether the RNG was rigged. I ended up winning the hot 16.50 tonight which was quite a nice feeling. I'm quite happy that WCOOP is done and now I can get back to my low-variance grind and recouperating some of the losses! Here's a fun hand:

https://www.boomplayer.com/28808538_A20EFC02CB
I had some very specific player reads here that led me to do this. Playing less tables and just trying to put the creative/exploitative approach back into my game has worked wonders for my mindset and hopefully my longterm ROI. This could be seen as a huge punt, but look how top heavy these tourneys are nowadays, ICM means so much less and when first place is 2x 2nd, playing ftw is GTO.

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Now that WCOOP is done, and it's time to take some time off poker, well except for this Thursday probably. I want to take my mind off poker. What better way to spew about some random **** in this thread?

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A lot of the time I spend my time wondering about the future. How will things look for future generations? What will the world be like in 20 years? If you look at how the world was in the early 2000's when I was a young kid it has changed DRASTICALLY. Everything from the time people spend at computers, the jobs, compters in general, the climate, sooo much hass changed. Just for fun, I'll talk about a few predictions I have for the future...maybe you guys can agree or disagree/suggest someof your own:



1. Government adopted digital currencies will be initiated. As the world becomes more digitized I think governments will prevent private companies from creating the currency. In other words, governments will introduce their own cryptocurrencies that are regulated/controlled by them.

2. A big recession looms. The past 8 or so years have been booming and prosperous in North America. This is one of the longest expansion economies ever. I could be totally wrong on this one, and I don't have very many reasons as to why I think that lol.

3. Robots will steal jobs. Instead of paying workers, companies would rather just have a machine that can work 24/7 under 0 labour laws. You don't have to worry about it filing an overtime claim, or slapping a co-worker in the ass and having to fire it. The government will have to come up with an alternative solution to support all the unemployed people. Corporations will need to be taxed heavily, and possibly a fixed income system will be implemented.

4. Amazon will take over retail. This company is sickly well positioned to do this. People want convenience, price, and selection. Amazon can do this better than almost any other company atm and has the means of scale and growth. In general, I think a few corporations will just take over every sector.

5. There will be a revolution in North American food/health industry. People have only been eating this new type of "SAD-Standard American Diet" for the past few decades and we still aren't aware of all the long term effects of this diet. (processed foods, many preservatives, sugars, artificial enhancers, high sugar/carb/unhealthy fat/fried etc). The amount of sick people will sky rocket and all of the health care won't be afforded. A revolution might occur to teach people the importance of eating healthy, and HOW to do it.

6. The Toronto Maple Leafs will win a Stanley Cup in the next 3 seasons. This team went from perpetual mediocrity and basement dwelling to being a serious contender/favourite in just a matter of years. The way management has built/grown this team will become a model for future sports teams.

7. Many regs will be forced out of online poker, and the games will become more withered than they already are. Less rakeback, more rake, in a tougher game, less fish wanting to play is a recipe for disaster. A tonne of breakeven, slightly losing/winning regs will be KO'd from poker. Many will pursue live poker, or move onto other avenues.

8. A big shift in the politically correct movement will occur. It's a weird time in society where people from majorities are so afraid to say/do anything. Minority groups/repressed groups are now almost expecting over-compensation for past decades. I think as time grows people will just more accept each-others differences and learn to work together, and not always feel like they're walking on egg shells.

9. It will take a very long time, and many angry people, but guns will get banned in the USA. This is the obvious solution. I mean, mass shootings do not occur at anywhere NEAR the frequency they do in the USA. Look at a country such as Australia, how the murder rate declined after banning firearms. There's something messed up with the American mindset that these disasters happen. It's also messed up that people capable of these atrocities are able to get their hands on semi automatic weapons in the first place. Nightclub shootings could be stopped if citizens were armed? How about having a bunch of drunk people with hand guns in night clubs? What will that do for your murder rate? How are these untrained people going to defend themselves in the most stressful situation of their lives, with a handgun against an assault rifle?

America should (IMO) ban guns and get better at identifying/helping troubled individuals

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Some of that stuff might come true, some of it might not. That's just the random thoughts I bring to you here @ 3:28 AM. Time for a day and weekend off starting tomorow Much love

You have 6 value combos in there, unless you made a sick RNG (like <10% =bluff), there's no way to say you're balanced in there. If you use all tour AT combos you will be overbluffing. So there isn't such a thing like "yeah, I'm balanced in there, villain will get owned when I have value" in those very rare spots it's very hard to be balanced unless you use RNG or some sick combo calculations/strat. Just never bluff there, the only reason we bluff otr in those spots is to deny villain the option of hero folding, if vlain doesn't consider that option, we shouldn't consider bluffing and since villain is underbluffing, our only option is folding.

@rapidesh: I never said I'm using all my Tx combos every single time. Quite frankly I'm seldom bluffing this spot, even if I do have the best hands to turn into a bluff. I just said Tx with club is probably the best hands to do it with if we are going to bluff. I agree he's underbluffing and agree we should probably just nit fold, as we have a lot of better hands to call. ty for ur thoughts sir

Sup y'all? I really should be going to bed right now because I need to be up early and have to be somewhat awake. Every now and again I get really "down in the dumps" or need to get some stuff off my chest...and that brings me here.

Today was a pretty good day online. I seemed to be running deep EVERYWHERE, but literally got so fkn unlucky in every run and only ended up like +2k on the day or something along those lines. Anyways, I've been really happy with my play lately and in these tough times is where we grow the most. I feel if maybe 5-10 all ins went differently in the last 3 months this would be a 50k upswing at least. Anyways, if it was easy...everyone would do it!

The part where this story gets a little bit depressing is I got invited to a local home game that I play in occasionally. My sports bet on the Jets +3 was looking like a lock, and I didn't have much else better to do so I thought "**** it let's be social and make some EV".

I quickly got stacked as there was a ridiculous pot multi ways I flopped open-ender and got it in against an over pair and bricked. I was mildly tilted at this point and didn't really feel like playing so I rebought anyways.

The next bullet is where I got super upset with myself. There's a rule where each time the button passes you, you put 5$ on it...and if you win the pot when you have the button you also win the amount on the button. This adds some interesting dynamics/incentives.

I was in the cutoff with 89o and opened to 10$, there was about 40$ on the button...he obviously calls, as did big blind. The big blind is an ATC type player, as was the button when he had the BTN incentive. FLOP: KQJhhx...i normally shut down here but I felt ranges of the other 2 players were extremely wide and BTN would 3 bet anything decent, so i c bet 20$...BTN quickly called. The turn was Tx, I checked, and he quickly moved all in. In general I have a very easy snap fold here, when he like 2x pot jams we can just call our Ax and maybe like flush draw+low end or something. Like a true idiot I leveled myself into a call and he tables A7o for the nut straight. I felt so stupid and disappointed in myself for donating 100bbs to this guy who is never bluffing. The way he snap moved in, adn just the fact he probably is never bluffing makes me feel super gross about calling.

So I kinda sat there for a second and told the dealer to deal me out. Was almost just shocked at how bad I played the hand/how bad he played it and I still paid him off. I started biting my tongue because I really wanted to berate the player and tell him why and how stupid his line was. Then I realized the reason I wanted to do this because it would help make me feel better about myself or help me justify to myself my play.

He won the pot, I lost the pot, I made a massive mistake. I'm sick and tired of making massive mistakes and the poor mindset that led me to the call costed me the pot. It wasn't anybody else's fault other than mine. So I gave my head a shake and told everyone "have a good night" and fist bumped the guy who stacked me on the way out and told him "nice hand".

Maybe I was tilted because the Jets blew the game, or because I was locked in a room grinding WCOOP and losing every day for 2 weeks, or because everything seems to be going wrong in poker lately (oh yeah I won the hot 16.50 yesterday like a boss ), just a combination of everything really.

Anyways, I also found myself getting in the chat recently at the tables and maybe poking fun at other players or chirping them...I didn't have any issue with this for several months now but have wandered back to my old ways. It's not acceptable and I need to be better.

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The funny thing is that we all battle so hard and concern ourselves with the game of poker and money...but it's only a game, and it's only money. It's so easy to forget about that or get caught up in the emotional storms that the game can bring. When it's all said and done the money or getting stacked by fish @ 1/2 home games does not mean squat. You can't bring money to the grave. I don't care about being remembered as a rich guy but I do care about being remembered as a good sport, good winner/good loser, and a kind person.

Here's my commitment going forward to focus on treating opponents with respect and trying to have fun with them, even if I'm in for my 7th bullet and in the worst mood of my life.

Sorry for that massive rant of negativity guys but I needed to spew it off my chest. I'm SO RELIEVED that I have this weekend off. Heading up to my cottage with my buddy I haven't spent much time with lately to do a bunch of fishing. I need this more than anything in the world right now. Thanks for reading and GL!

Cool AT hand, you could lead overbet river too! Villain is probably folding 2p vs your 3-bet.

agree...unless he is from brazil/argentina/malta jk haha

It was approx. 12:30 AM when I set out for a nightly stroll about an hour ago at the time of writing this. I was feeling quite beat down and salty about literally being in the bottom ~1% of runbad (that is completely subjective and likely biased btw), bubbling high stakes tournaments , players making bad calls and getting rewarded, and just overall having limited short term success in the game that I've given everything to lately. Jamming 33 from SB with 15bbs eff. and getting snapped by Q8ss with 14 left in a tourney, and feeling like I get flopped dead in this spot 99% of the time, and probably have been running insanely bad in these spots when it's all said and done.

Anyways, so I was out on this late stroll and starting to feel a bit of regret. I had just bubbled a big MTT that should never have happened. A reg who hasn't won since 2014 on Stars spite called me and sucked out. TBH i think making bad calls like that is a reason for lack of winning but probably he is a really talented player who just ran bad/game selected poorly. I guess I felt some injustice because I'm so sick of this happening over and over and over and over and over for months but I felt a feeling of self-disappointment, because I started spamming the chat box saying it's a bad call and some other OOL stuff. This unsportsmanlike behaviour was characteristics of my "old-self" shining through, and I'm better than that. Not only do I look like a clown doing it, but I'm possibly helping a player who's making massively -EV plays to improve, and most importantly just being unkind.

OK, so back to the story finally. I was out on the walk feeling really ****ty, and the rain started to pour down (cue the pathetic fallacy of the story). I started to turn around to head back and then I told myself "no, you aren't turning back until you truly get out of this bad mood and think of your mistakes". I walked for another 40 minutes in the pouring rain and passed that cemetery I've talked about before. I told myself the same thing I tell myself every night I pass by: "every night I walk by here I'm one more night closer to being in here" "I'm so blessed to be on this side of the ground right now" "the people in this cemetery and people I loved who passed away would want me to be the best person I can be, to appreciate life, and to stop being a downer."

I'm not saying I went into the best mood of my life, but I definitely felt better. Then the rain, the bad beats, whatever other ****, was all put into perspective. I told myself when I get home I'm drying off and going to write a post to hopefully spread some good, and here's that post, enjoy:

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My friend and I went for shawarmas yesterday before our ping-pong meeting. As we were ordering a homeless guy came in off the street and asked us if we could spare any change. I was a little bit tilted thinking to myself like "fk off man I'm trying to order food here in a private restaurant gtfo". I gave the guy a few bucks from my wallet anyways and told him to go get some groceries with it.

Many people just ignore these people and tell them to buzz off like they are a wasp or pest. I mean, yeah in a way they are. However, you could also view it as these people are desperate enough to walk into a private business and beg customers for money. Imagine the hardships they've probably been through that led them to that point. Imagine the addictions they've become enslaved to. Imagine how far just a little tiny speck of kindness could go.

Imagine the above scenario if it was a sexy af girl approaching you for money, and not some homeless dude. 99% of guys I know would snap give her a few bucks, try to make conversation, and go out of their way to help her. Most people wouldn't hesitate to buy a random girl at a bar a drink, and then tip the bartender for just a small favour of pouring the drinks.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I've noticed a lot of people only show kindness when there is net positive EV for them in the interaction, in other words, they can benefit in some way. For example they might buy something for someone in hopes they will get something in return in the future.

Another thing I've noticed is people only displaying kindness when everything is going well for them. A true display of character is when things aren't going well for somebody and yet they still show kindness and a willing to help. For example I see in live poker tournaments the guys who are the most friendly are the guys who are winning in the game. They often will joke around with the table, be friendly with the dealers, and just be in a good mood. However, when you see those guys lose a few big pots a change in their demeanour happens...berating players/dealers, tilt, etc etc.

The lesson that I want to force myself to learn and implement in the future is that kindness should be shown to everybody and I should always be my best self no matter how crappy of a day I'm having or how little benefit they can bring me. Ironically, I have an inkling I'll have much fewer crappy days with this mindset

Oh yeah, it's tough to understand the EV of being a kind person and a good sport/fun guy to play with. You never know what opportunities will arise from it, or how much better it will make you feel. A real man is the best version of himself no matter who/if nobody is watching, and no matter what obstacles get thrown at him.

Here's a few quick acts of kindness that won't cost you a cent:
-Go up to a hard working employee at a restaurant and thank them for their service
-Ask a random person in an elevator etc how their day is going. (You would be suprised how many people love getting asked this, some might not).
-Write a nice comment in a guy's blog who is putting in work.
-Pay for the person behind you in line coffee (might cost a few cents)
-Reach out to an old friend and ask them how everything is going.
-Volunteer
-Watch a twitch streamer with not many viewers

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That's all I got fam, feeling so much better now than I was 2 hours ago. The caffeine is wearing off though and it's time for some shut eye. Looking forward to a nice personal day tomorrow. Much love!

Starting to feel REALLY ****ty about all this. At least today's loss was only 3 figures for once Thought I was going to have a winning day when I had stacks everywhere and literally got ****ed so many times on bubbles etc that it doesn't even seem real. I couldn't even make up some of the bs that happened today. Anyways, glad to get that whine out of the way because this **** is stressful af.

I keep working/grinding hard but it just feels like it's not working right now. I'm +100k in live poker this year and probably like BE online when I've spent 50x as much time playing online as live. So I guess instead of pounding my head against my monitor for the next few days I'm going to try slinging some volume at live poker. They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over when it's not working, and the online grind doesn't seem to be working right now...

The more and more I think about it Stars games are becoming not worth playing. I'm not saying like the 109 Mini ST, or Sunday Million/Marathon etc, but more just anything that is not red/blue, below 23$, or reg speed is just not worth it nowadays. I've started just playing solely red+blue tourneys, skipping most turbos that aren't red below 56$. The lower table counts has been great for focus+I've been forcing myself to replace those gaps with better value games from other sites. Have really been enjoying the grind on 888/party.

It's so hard to make decent money off stars atm because:
1) Fields are reg infested and the toughest online
2) Virtually 0 rakeback
3) Absurdly high rake. Rebuy games/turbos/hypers are worthless to play nowadays
4) Payout structures are designed to make variance sick/give winning players less edge
5) Bounty Builders have taken the place of many great structure reg. MTTs. A lot of the fish have followed, and that's naturally a format where edges run far thinner together. (They're massive variance+fish just punting stacks is actually a viable strategy). Maybe I'm wrong about this, but I feel progs. aren't like overly great for anything other than being fun to play.
6) Guarantees dwarf what they used to be even just 2-3 years ago. Big 109 with 20k gtd, fk it used to get 20k up top many days.

So yeah, I'm fairly pessimistic right now but when I scope a bunch of good regs who have crushed every year until now, and they're losing it makes me raise some questions. I used to play 99% of my volume on Stars...again...I'm not insane and I'm not going to keep repeating stuff if it's not working.

Afterall, it's not really a secret that Stars has been trying to cut down the edges. They've done a good job at getting me to stop reging a lot of their games anyways...I guess that's what they want?

Sorry for all the negativity. Sometimes I just need to speak my mind. I'll be back Saturday or Sunday for a big session, not exclusively on what used to be my favourite site.

Sup fam?

Hope y'all had a better Sunday than me. Had an awesome workout in the morning and was feeling like a million bucks all day. Unfortunately, the trend of 2018 continues and the runbad is seeming to be about as bad as it could possibly be. I'm not here to whine or make excuses. In no way am I saying the downswing has been solely because of run bad. In no way am I saying that I played my 100% A game every day, game selected as best as possible, or spent as much time in the lab as I should have. What I am here to do is make one last quality post before I go into the abyss for a while.

This has been one of the worst downswings (if not the worst of my career) and it really feels like my back is against the wall. This is the post marking that I'm not going to be posting in here for at least a few weeks, if not longer. Picture this post as the equivalent of a lion in the African desert that has not eaten for several days...the lion has to eat or else it will starve. The lion does not occupy it's time with sleeping in excess, playing around, or writing in a blog. THE LION HUNTS TO SURVIVE. If the lion does not hunt, the lion starves, and then dies. Sometimes, the lion dies despite it's efforts. This is the post solidifying that it's time for me to stop ****ing around and get on the hunt...just like a lion. If it takes me a long time to respond to messages etc. just know that I'm busy hunting. Maybe I'll die in the hunt (not literally), but at least I know I gave it my best effort.

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Before I go into the abyss, I'll leave one more post here as promised. Hopefully whoever reads can enjoy.

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A few days ago I called my mom just to talk about things/catch up. Of course one of the main points of conversation is always talking about how poker is going. I wish I could tell her that I've been winning all the money, because results is really all that the "muggles" care about. (Not sure if muggles is the term but I'm talking about the term used in Harry Potter books to describe non-magic real world people).

I always try to be relatively honest with my family/friends about how poker is going, sometimes you have to sugar coat things or whatever just to avoid complications etc. This time, I figured I'd be brutally honest. I told her it's going the worst it ever has to the point it doesn't even seem real anymore. I've been trying really hard but sometimes you can be on the ugly side of variance for longer than one might believe is possible. I told her how stressed it's making me.

This conversation basically always ends the same: "well, maybe you should just go apply for jobs and then you don't always have to worry about variance?" To my surprise, that statement was actually proceeded by "well, you are clearly a really good player and you have always seemed to pull through when your back is against the wall."

In the past, I'd sternly disagree with the "get a real job" speech and try to preach how I am a good player and it will turn soon. On my drive home I pondered the fact that I actually have possibly the least self-belief in poker than I ever have...despite all my success. Just the way things are trending it doesn't feel "right" to be in poker much longer (and I truly don't plan to be).

Anyways, what about the "get a real job" option? It's consistent money. It's safe. It's comfortable. It makes you fit in better with society. Poker players often scoff at the idea of getting a real job. There's no denying there's massive downsides to being a poker player, just like there are massive downsides to working a normal job. There's pros and cons of anything in life. The hard part is not identifying the pros/cons of being a pro poker player for a living (that's quite easy), but more so assigning weights towards those pros/cons and comparing that to another career, and then making some calculation for the opportunity cost of continuing in poker vs. moving into something else. I'll be honest about this though...it's ****ing difficult leaving something that you've put your heart and soul into for so long.

Just like it's tough leaving a relationship you've put your heart and soul into for so long. Sometimes, it's the best thing for you. There is just so much discomfort in the unknown that we often sweep "potential growth" under the rug in order to stay in our comfort zone. Poker is what I've done for the last years and it's what I'm comfortable doing...it's what I've always known. Am I hindering potential growth or providing an opportunity for it down the road?

Ok Mike....why not start applying to normal jobs tomorrow? Well, I sort of have developed some issues with the normal job routine. I tried it for a few years during school and felt like I was a good employee+enjoyed most days/was a happy dude. However, what I do see is a "trap" that a lot of people fall into. They become obsessed with making money and moving up a corporate ladder. Picture the fat mid/upper level manager who has all the money he could ever need. He drives a nice BMW and has a nice house. In order to pay for this he sacrifices 60 hours a week being some fake people-pleasing employee, commutes and sits in traffic 4 hours a day, sits at a desk all day, and whatever other traps people in the corporate world fall into. He has every material thing he could ever dream of...but still feels empty inside. Life has become nothing but creating wealth for a corporation, and taking a little bit for himself off the top. Another trap I see is the single parent working 3 jobs just to put food on the table for their kids. The company they work for pays them a piss poor wage and that person works their ass off because they don't have any other option.

So, I'm not so anti-job as it may seem. Quite frankly, I just want to be doing something that I feel fulfilled, can enjoy my life, and can love my living. Let's leave it at this: I have some dreams and I don't want to let them die just yet. I'm worried that locking into a long-term career might put them to death.

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Sorry for the massive rant everyone. I felt it necessary to get this **** off my chest and make a sincere post before going into my hunt. Going to be quite some time until I post in here again. Much love to everybody who has followed/supported/railed/lurked/commented along the way...I appreciate you all!

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_oK8MeKayc
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"With each new day in Africa, a gazelle wakes up knowing he must outrun the fastest lion or perish. At the same time, a lion stirs and stretches, knowing he must outrun the fastest gazelle or starve. It's no different for the human race. Whether you consider yourself a gazelle or a lion, you have to run faster than others to survive."

- Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

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(L) -Mike (WalmartCNXN)

Great post as always man , good luck for the next few months

4th in Big $55 for 2.1 and 5th in $109 Tuesday for 4.7! Let's goooooooo.

HEATTT!!!

4th in Big $55 only paying $2K, I remember like 10 years ago it would have paid about 10K

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxW0n5Fe5CY
gl <3