With some encouragement, I'm starting one of these things.

I'm a low level recreational player--I mean that descriptively, not an evaluation of skill, although of course it may be that as well. I play a decently long session each week. I'm interested in using PGC as a semi-public way to track my progress across my hobbies and passions.

Right now, that means it will be a bit about playing poker, a bit about studying poker, a bit about writing, and a bit about just keeping on keeping on.

#JAN REVIEW

[X] Play 3+ times. Played 3.
[ ] 12 hours of study. Meh. Probably got in a good 8, though. Most focused on learning the ins & outs of GTO+.

Live poker is having a bit of a moment here. My goal is to just keep trying to get better in what, imo, is the hardest form of the game to exploit: massive variance in skill levels and stack depth across the table, with the most common words out of the dealer's mouth being, _five players to the flop_.

I like to think that, in a very DGAF sense, I'm good for the game: I think poker should be fun, I think it should be social, and I thoroughly enjoy it virtually all the time, with the exceptions being when I do really stupid ****.

#STORY TIME

In my most recent session, there's a dude at the table who I've played with before. 4 hours ago, however, was the first time I had played with him when he was sober. Now that is no longer a consideration. What makes him great, though, is that he will put his 2K stack in the middle at any time. No fear, no concern. And it works: people at 1/3 or so risk-averse that he continually blows people off hands with air.

Dude who looks just short of an OMC sits down to his left. Goes North to have more than the standard 1K buy in in front of him, but nobody calls him out on it--his clear desire IMO was to cover the inebriated fellow.

On a board that is something like KJ9J7, having raised preflop, he fires 3 barrels, being called on each street by the drinker. Drinker shows a bad K -- K8, K6, something like that. NearOMC rolls over AQ.

Point: the decision to bluff the 100% unbluffable person on the table was amusing to us mere observers.

But it was merely the 2nd most amusing moment of the night. The best was when 4 players made it to the river with all of them playing the board, 2 of them folded, and the pot was only chopped 2 ways. Good times.

#BR UPDATE

Jan Bankroll net: +18%. So that's fun.

#READING WELL

For the past ... 4 years ... I've written quick blurbs about everything I've read. In Jan, that was

There There by Tommy Orange. https://mankinlevine.com/2019/01/rea...-tommy-orange/ Liked this one. It's a debut novel, so there are some issues, but it's a good read.

Milkman by Ann Burns. https://mankinlevine.com/2019/01/rea...by-anna-burns/ 2018 Man Booker Prize winner. Very skilled, has a rhythm I find hard to really embrace.

The Second Life of Samuel Tyne by Esi Edugyan. https://mankinlevine.com/2019/01/rea...y-esi-edugyan/ Really building towards a 2018 novel of hers, but figured I should read her 1st 2 as well. This is bleak as hell, but solid.

#WRITING

One of my goals with the PGC is to also track my writing. I'm about 120,000 words into a novel, and it just needds some rhythm and discipline to push it through. But I know my creative process enough to know that I also need long fallow stretches where I don't write. The problem is that productive stewing on things feels very similar to avoiding writing, so ... yeah.

I would like to get in roughly the same number of poker sessions as writing sessions in a month (writing sessions are much shorter, basically containing 1.5 - 3 hours of focused typing).

#FEB GOALS

[ ] Play 3+ sessions.
[ ] Study 12 hours.
[ ] Write 3 sessions.
[ ] Make 2 update posts in my PGC.

On the study, specifically, I want to simultaneously work on a set of representative flops and run some favorite online hands through analysis. Sort of both generic explorations of different situations and deep dives into very specific spots. We'll see.

Aight. I've already lost 75% of y'all. Thanks for stopping by, let's see where this goes.

first!

Tequila shots or no tequila shots...confirmed!

Hey, I feel like I earned that chopped pot by exuberantly fast-rolling my 8-hi.

GL on the goals and looking forward to following

So far, so good. 2 sessions played, 1 writing session even.

It's that last that actually means something. Getting back into a long work is a process in and of itself, so the first session was really editing and tightening and remembering where I was.

I use a piece of software called Scrivener which is an amazing tool for writing. it has a place where you can put notes on your scenes or chapters or whatever. I saw a note that said, add more about the tooth ...

Hmmm. I have no memory of there being a tooth in the story, no memory of whose--or what's--tooth it might be.

So now I am working through my own writing, wondering when I'll find something about a tooth. Good times.

Hand of the month so far: running KK into AA preflop for just under 600BB total and getting an all board for the chop.

Who says runGood ain't real?

Coming around 3/1:

• My biggest cash game loss ever!
• The unique emotion of betting into a drunk Hannibal Lecter!

#FEB REVIEW

[x] Play 3+ sessions.
[x] Study 12 hours.
[x] Write 3 sessions.
[x] Make 2 update posts in my PGC.

Not ****ing bad for a February ...

#STORY TIME

I'm thinking about racking up, it's been a perfectly fine session, nothing spectacular. But it's a bit late, and my table broke, and the young pro to my right has just about bluffed off all of his chips.

An older man stumbles into his seat. It's a dealer change, and they exchange looks and say something to each other about "The Captain." The upshot of it is that his appearing at the table blotto'd off his gourd is neither new nor surprising.

It's an interesting moment: before the good Captain sat down, there were some spots in the game, but the dynamic would change dramatically depending on who was in the hand, the action, all the usual variables. But now, all of that shifts. The table rotates around the Captain, and the game suddenly devolves into dealer bingo.

Pick me, dealer, pick me!

With a slight slur and a somewhat random flow of topics, the Captain has an accent I can't really place. Turns out he's Danish. The more I look at him, the more I realize he looks significantly like Anthony Hopkins. He runs his stack up a bit, then the dealer picks someone else and he's felted.

He goes to the ATM, comes back, and I play some pots with him. It's pretty uncomfortable, as it feels a lot like betting into Hannibal Lecter. Whatever, you gotta' do what you gotta' do. I win a round of dealer bingo, and when he goes back to the ATM, he runs into the dreaded daily limit, and can only come back with a microstack. Time to go home.

Still ... I beat Hannibal Lecter in a pot. That's something.

#STUDY

Was a good month for studying. On reflection, the most interesting things came out of a discussion about suited connectors and similar hands, combined with a bunch of GTO+ work with them. As always, I'm most interested in the contexts in which I play: wide stack depth variance, wide skill variance, 5-7 people to the flop being the norm.

Even so, some axioms began to emerge, beginning with

• *IF* your 3-bet is likely to make it heads up, 3-betting is good, as virtually all folds will add to your Eq.
• *IF* your 3-bet is likely to not thin the field, there is little practical Eq difference in calling v raising, and therefore position and perceived edge should dictate.

#BR UPDATE

Feb Bankroll net: -10%. So that's fun.

#READING WELL

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi. https://mankinlevine.com/2019/02/rea...akwaeke-emezi/. Creative, creepy debut novel with an interesting take on the relationship between spirit possession and mental health.

Gnomon by Nick Harkaway. https://mankinlevine.com/2019/02/rea...nick-harkaway/. Smartest thing I've read in years. Complicated story that weaves 5 (maybe 6) storylines into a detective story set in a society where privacy has been surrendered for security. Good stuff.

#WRITING

Whoo Hoo! Wrote 3 sessions, and chapter 3 groans along. I needed to write a scene that did a particular bit of work to show why the protagonist needed to resign himself to doing X instead of the more instantly appealing Y. It required a very viscerally uncomfortable scene.

I don't know if it's any good, but I got through it, and writing again feels ... well, someone described it as peaceful, which works. Writing is rarely *fun*, but doing it feels good, for sure.

#MAR GOALS

March is going to be rough. Two business trips wrapped around March Madness in LV, and a trip for a 100th birthday as well. So the goals are a little lighter than usual.

[ ] Play 2 sessions
[ ] Play as much in LV as feels good
[ ] Study 12 hours
[ ] Write 2 sessions

#MAR REVIEW

[X] Play 2 sessions
[X] Play as much in LV as feels good
[X] Study 12 hours
[ ] Write 2 sessions.

All good but the writing. Writing is so odd. I spent 15 years feeling angst and guilt whenever I wasn't writing, a constant stream of self-critique that was almost palpable at times.

Now, that's gone. And that's a good thing--certainly much healthier. But I wonder if, with it, I have also lost the passion that would get this novel finished as well. Nothing to do but keep trying to press on with it.

#STORY TIME

What happens over March Madness weekend in Vegas stays in Vegas.

I will say that losing to a set of 4's that had *literally* forgotten what they had because they were tripping their balls off was among the highlights. It's like the reverse implied odds of live tells: I read him correctly that he didn't think he was that strong ... but I forgot that the Jack of diamonds on the board was probably singing him an aria ...

#STUDY

Fascinating month for the poker studies. Here's why:

* Some of the people I trust most to evaluate my game played some hours with me.
* They had fantastic critiques of my game, about where I was (often radically) too wide preflop, where I needed to think more about what v's bets might mean, etc.
* None of the spots they pointed out contributed to the half dozen largest pots of the month ... of which only 1 was pushed my direction.

So the biggest thing was some confirmation that I am in the midst of some serious runBad, and while I am leaking money that is preventing me from buffering the impact of the runBad, the runBad is real.

So often, bankroll results are dependent on realizing equity in big pots. I'm not doing that right now. Which leads to ...

#BR UPDATE

Mar Bankroll net: -55%. So that's fun.

#READING WELL

The Idiot by Elif Batumen. https://mankinlevine.com/2019/03/rea...-elif-batuman/. A 2017 Pulitzer Prize finalist, I found it vaguely amusing, but a little lightweight.

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward. https://mankinlevine.com/2019/03/rea...y-jesmyn-ward/. I think Ward's Delta Trilogy are an important entry in contemporary American fiction, speaking to slices of African-American and semi-rural life that are usually overlooked. Salvage the Bones, the 2nd of the 3, is as strong as the others, presenting a near-unique view of a young, pregnant, teen protagonist against the looming backdrop of Hurrican Katrina.

Skippy Dies by Paul Murray. https://mankinlevine.com/2019/03/rea...y-paul-murray/. Looking for an updated take on the prep school novel? Here it goes. The title gives away the 1st chapter, and the fact that Murray holds your interest as he retraces exactly how and why Skippy does indeed die, is quite an accomplishment.

#APR GOALS

[ ] Play 2 Sessions (travel and other activities make that the max this month)
[ ] Write 2 Sessions
[ ] Study 12 Hours

For a bunch of reasons, tonight will be my first session since the Vegas debacle mentioned above. I'm anxious for the first time in years--whatever version of runBad I am currently in is impacting me, and is hard to overcome.

It's all about the process and the decisions and fixing my own particular leaks (largely preflop looseness in multiway bingo pots and hero calling, although the latter works out better for me than the former), but running good in big spots remains a key to bankroll growth.

EoM update will have the results.

APR REVIEW

[ ] Play 2 Sessions. Played 1.
[ ] Write 2 Sessions. Wrote 0.
[X] Study 12 Hours. At least that happened.

Meh. Got sick, was on the road, and ... whatever. Did some studying, which was good. But it was a low poker content month, fo sho.

AT THE FELT

Just the one session, which had a rough pattern of getting buried for about 700BB before coming back to finish up. It was a really good session emotionally: I didn't tilt being down, on the contrary, just ground it out. Value bet bad players with top pair for 3 streets, bluffed better players in sensible lines, etc.

Getting down started on my second hand, where I was all-in for 250BB or so with the nut flush draw against 2 players all-in (I closed the action). Just one of those spots where I think that, especially in weak games, you have to be willing to try to realize your equity (it's either that or tighten up preflop by another 10-20%--that is, if you're going to play KQs early/in the blinds, you can't fold getting 3:1 on the nut draw. imo).

Final hand of note was moderately interesting, as it involved getting all in with AK on a K high board against a good player: never a great spot, but there was meta (I miss calling it Shania, I really do). I was right that he was frustrated, tilting, and trying to punt his stack, but I'm wrong there often, too.

#BR UPDATE

Apr Bankroll net: +13%. So that's fun.

#READING WELL

Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan/ https://mankinlevine.com/2019/04/rea...y-esi-edugyan/. Best read so far this year: a wonderful realization of jazz players in Europe during the final throws of WW II, and their later life back in the USA. The relationships and the language is incredible, especially if you have any attraction to fiction about music and musicians.

As Meat Loves Salt by Maria McCann/ https://mankinlevine.com/2019/04/rea...-maria-mccann/. A deeply flawed and violent protagonist set in 16th century England. Very good, but not everyone's cup of tea.

We Have Always Lived In the Castle by Shirley Jackson/ https://mankinlevine.com/2019/04/rea...irley-jackson/. Creepy, creepy, creepy and wonderful. For the 1st 90%. Coming out soonish as a movie.

#MAY GOALS

Well ... this gets odd. The largest local poker rooms were raided this week, so I may be back in a poker desert. Dunno' what that means: a return to the grimy unpleasantness of the underground games? Bovada? Just intense study and fanboying L@TB?

I do have a trip to PHX mid month, so at least 1 session at Talking Stick awaits.

[ ] Play 1 Session
[ ] Write 2 Sessions
[ ] Study 20 Hours

subbed - I just saw the Houston rooms were raided. Sorry to hear it.
And if you are heading to Phoenix consider stopping by Casino del Sol in Tucson. Ben can testify the games are interesting.

Nice work. Seriously. Getting buried early and continuing to play well has gotta be one of the toughest tasks in poker.

Casino del LOL is one of my favorite rooms. I'll be back myself in June.

Talking Stick is good, too. Probably in my top ten.

You get firsties! Ben don't count.

I have a single Friday evening. Will probably cut my work day short around 3 or so, and am staying in PHX proper. I should have a rental car.

Given all that, would y'all recommend one over the other?

Thanks.

It's something that historically I've been decent at. I'm not afraid of getting buried in a session, for sure.

But I've been running on the south side of variance (not in a DGAF-y abyss like thing, but certainly in an oh, look, it's another large pot where I either didn't hit or didn't hold), which just adds a whole 'nother layer.

Given the time limitations you are better off at Talking Stick - there will be a variety of games to choose from. Assuming you are looking for spread limit holdem (we don't have true no limit in Az).

They'll have multiple tables of 2-3 blind and 3-5 blind games. I think the buyin caps are 500 and 1k respectively. Its 500 max single bet played like a limit game with 3 raises max per round unless heads up.

Del Sol game plays a little bigger, with larger buy in caps and a 680 max single bet, no caps on raises per round. And I think the 2-5 at Del Sol has a more lively atmosphere than most games at Talking Stick. But given the travel time required probably doesn't work this time.

#MAY REVIEW

[X] Play 1 Session.
[0] Write 2 Sessions.
[16] Study 20 Hours.

#AT THE FELT

Played one session at Talking Stick. Storytime material for sure, but not much else. Massive, very comfy room. Def would lose there again (ooh, foreshadowing).

When you sign up for your Player's Card at Casino Arizona, they ask you eagle, something else (road runner? elk?), or coyote. The answer is clearly coyote, seen here with its new owner:



{I may not be good enough to get images to show on 2+2. We'll see. }

The key hand for me was a spot where the miniAbyss (tm) I'm in influenced my decision, which is not a good thing. Got myself into a bloated pot against a very bad player and a very good player that was max-raised (the 3 raise max rule is bizarre and fun) preflop ($200ish in the pot) with my holding something like 8d7d and the flop being 567 rainbow.

Bad player shoves for last $300, good player with obv overapair adds another $300, so I'm looking at open-ended (my pair is very likely good against bad player, but that no longer matters) pot of $1100 having to call $600. I dunno. I folded because of the stacks--if I thought I had a shot at the sidepot, it's a call. But maybe it's a call regardless. The 8 hit, of course, which, you know, in no way influences my thinking about the hand ...

Still unsure about what to do locally. No interest in being in a room that is raided (which, I believe, is very low probability, but still). But also no interest in playing in rooms that are only full of HTown regs. The local regs population is pretty bad, so those games may still be profitable. They're just somewhat soul-destroying.

The mix of all that led me into the bizarro world of Bovada poker, though, which is probably a good thing. For one, it demanded that I navigate purchasing bitcoin, so now I am officially hip, right? Hodl! Hodl!

Online play will begin to show up in the goals. I am really hyped to use it as a learning lab: there is little better than having thousands and thousands of hands to sift through with a decent tool. Using DriveHUD right now, which is more useful for hand analysis and research than actual HUD, I think.

#STORY TIME

Two bits stand out about my voyage to Casino Arizona.

The first was a guy who reminded me in a vague way of Ron Perlman's Clay Morrow character from Sons of Anarchy. It was some mixture of gravelly voice, table captaining, and the stylized, non-red, MAGA hat. He was also ****ing miserable in a very specific way. Here's what I mean: we literally had a young guy at the table who did not know how to min-raise. He was involved early on in a largeish pot, someone bet $100 to him, he tried to raise to $150. He eventually won a 3-bet, multi raise hand without showing down (think on that for a while).

The good news was he was in the game, the bad news was that more people were raising to isolate him than just me. But he sucked out against MagaAnarchy, and, what do you know, the old man can't stop berating him, immediately turning it into a dick measuring contest. Sigh.

Table captains are frustrating in general. Table captains that ensure the dude who cannot minraise will never, ever rebuy need to be dragged off to PLO. Which, he was. But it wasn't until after the n00b left.

Second bit.

This young woman sits down a couple seats to my right, and throws out 3 black chips for her buyin. I give her stacks of red for them, there is some friendliness, whatever. She makes a couple hands, then gets sucked out on in a decent size pot, is back down to under her initial buy in. Around this time--I don't remember if it was before the suckout or after it--another woman comes up. Also young, blonde, wearing a crop top that is working hard not to show underboob. The blonde has a couple slips of paper in her hand--I am assuming they are payout slips from slots or table games or whatever.

I assume this because they look at them, giggle and smile, and then the poker player leans back and the blonde leans over and they make out for a quick second.

SO ... suddenly the entire table is quite engaged and focused on them. They are pretty fine with this, and play a few hands with the blonde perched on the player's lap.

And then I have 9s9c on a ThTs3h board against her. She goes all in for slightly less than the pot, and I call. Look, she doesn't always have a T there, right? And if she has a T there, she's more likely to c/r than donk, right? Whatever. She did have a T ... but I rivered a 9, and now not only is she furious at me (to the point she throws her card protector--a 50 cent piece--to me as well), but the rest of the table isn't thrilled with me either once it becomes clear she isn't going to rebuy.

She leaves with a parting line that would have been great, if she hadn't added the second clause: "At least I'm going home to great tits. What are you going home to?"

When other people busted, we would ask them, "What kind of tits are you going home to?" but it got too awkward to explain, so we stopped.

#BR UPDATE

May Bankroll net: -8%. So that's fun.

#READING WELL

Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday is highly recommended. https://mankinlevine.com/2019/05/rea...lisa-halliday/ Best read of the month for sure. And the notion of reading about a thinly-disguised love affair with Phillip Roth is fun.

The Power by Naomi Alderman. https://mankinlevine.com/2019/05/rea...aomi-alderman/ A bit of feminist escapism, and enjoyable. Addresses the question of what if women had the physical edge over men? Would anything actually change, or would it just be inverted?

Silence is My Mother Tongue by Sulaiman Addonia. https://mankinlevine.com/2019/05/rea...aiman-addonia/. A lyric reflection on life and love in a refugee camp. Solid.

Finally, some graphic novels and a strong endorsement of A Walk Through Hell, Garth Ennis' latest. https://mankinlevine.com/2019/05/rea...els-one-comic/

#JUNE GOALS

Travel and the return of prodigal offspring probably wrenches writing. But some of the travel is to LV--my first time there during the WSOP, which I'm looking forward to for sure. So, how about

[ ] Play Live in LV, hopefully exiting the miniAbyss (tm)
[ ] Play 10 - 12 hours on Bovada
[ ] Write 1 Session
[ ] Study 8-10 hours

The aforementioned coyote and owner:

Was wondering if the miniAbyss (tm) would follow me online. This is a very small sample, variance, yadda. 3200 hands. But still.



So, that's fun.

My outlook: it's the price for running spectacularly well at life. But. Still.

#JUNE REVIEW

[X] Play Live in LV, hopefully exiting the miniAbyss (tm)
[X] Play 10 - 12 hours on Bovada
[ ] Write 1 Session
[X] Study 8-10 hours

Played about 5.6k hands on Bovada, unsure of how many hours, but that seems plenty to check the box.

#AT THE FELT

Played 3 sessions in LV: Wynn, Caesar's, and the Golden Nugget.

Got to fanboy the WSOP for the first time, which was great, and even cheered for Chidwick as he took down his 1st bracelet. I'm old, so I'm thinking about the Seniors event in 2020. We'll see.

Played cash with 2 friends who are, without a doubt, my favorite friends to play cards with. The just get it--we can battle like hell on the felt, reveling in the meta that clouds all the judgement (or, at least, all of my judgement), and the outcomes don't impact interactions off the felt. It's just blissful. So, thanks to them for that. And for doing CCR for dinner. I love CCR, and don't get to do it often enough.

One of them put me in 2 horrifically polarized situations, but I only paid him off once, so there's some small victory there.

The other provided the best story of the weekend, which spans late night at Caesar's and into the next day at the Nugget.

Our table at Caesar's was dominated by the 1 seat and the 2 seat. In the 2 seat was Maurice, who was fairly inebriated, fairly flamboyant, fairly pleasant, and shockingly good at rivers. In the 1 seat was some angry young semipro who was ranting on and on about how horrible Maurice was, how he wouldn't shut up, how he was stalling action, etc.

He wasn't wrong: Maurice was slow, made a production out of ever hand, and kept dashing out of his seat to check out "the bootys" in the line to Omnia. But AngryYoungSemipro was *far* more annoying than Maurice, imo.

Maurice's prime skill was on display. He lost 2 pots when we first sat down and was down to around $60. And then ... Maurice happened. All in with 85 on a K8J board against KQ? No problem, 5 on the river. Call a shove pre with 65? No prob, 2 pair on the river. Call flop and turn with nothing but an inside draw? No problem, Maurice knows how to river.

The only sadness here is that 2 of those hands were against one of my buddies, TD. TD took a couple other beats as well, and was now locked in, leaning over to tell me "what sucks now is that I'm here as long as he is. As long as Maurice has chips, it's on."

I felt much the same way: I have deep respect for the amount of work it took to learn to river that well, but still. Our other friend, the sane one, had packed it in already.

At this point, Maurice was up over $700.

But a nice woman from Kentucky had gone to the same school, and she and Maurice got it all in on a board that had a 5, a 6, and a 7 somewhere on it, and when she rolled over the mighty 84, he had to be shown the straight. So now Maurice is back under $200, and TD is visibly angry at the sudden drop in probability of Maurice returning some of the money he had obtained.

And then this happens: TD raises pre, I call with a suited one gapper, cuz I'm a donkey (and cuz I was pretty sure 2 deep stacks would overcall, but somehow they didn't). He led flop, which had 2 of my suit, I called. Turn gave me an open ended straight draw to go along with the flush draw, he c/r me and I didn't like folding or shoving, so I called. River completes the flush, he shoves (small compared to pot), and I call.

Pretty standard. But TD had enough. He flips over AA with A of the flush draw, turns to me and says, in his deep and gravely voice, "I'll see you in hell," and wanders off into the night.

Two things are important

1 - TD joined us at the Nugget the next day, and all was fine. Not only was all fine, but he totally understood why I thought it was an amazing line to leave on--probably even better than "what kind of tits are you going home to" from above, and he cackled along with me as we talked about.

2 - Note, it was not, "go to hell." It was, "I'll see you in hell." It admits complicity and camraderie in the behavior, and puts the injured party in the same boat as the donkey, both doing flips with Chiron for safe passage.

Anyhow. I ran like the sun for 45 minutes more making enough to make the trip an overall net positive, which was a pleasant surprise.

The session at the Nugget was graced, momentarily, by Neeme and Jaman Burton and 3 of their friends, so I can say I've played a hand with the most famous poker vlogger in the world, and Jaman. It was also cool to see downtown LV--something between the insanity of the strip and the suburban sameness of the rest of the city that I've seen. And playing with cash on the table was heaps of fun.

#BR UPDATE

June Bankroll net: +14%. So that's fun.

#READING WELL

Fewer book posts this month, but more posts overall. You can find all of my blatherings about the World Cup at https://mankinlevine.com/tag/wwc2019/ .

Infinite Detail by Tim Maughan. https://mankinlevine.com/2019/06/rea...y-tim-maughan/ A very quick read with some intelligence around what potential for dystopia is held in the prospect of a total internet outage in the near future. A good read, a bit optimistic (!) at the end imo.

Unsheltered by Barbar Kingsolver. https://mankinlevine.com/2019/06/rea...ra-kingsolver/ . Big Kingsolver fan, this is solid but not great.

#JUNE GOALS

The big one is to reboot the writing. I feel the urges stirring, and my boredom with my novel is being slowly replaced by notions of what to do with it. We'll see.

[ ] 5k hands on Bovada
[ ] 3 hours of work on the novel
[ ] 12+ hours of hand study

For historical perspective, when WSOP was still at Binions in the 80s and 90s, I never went near the strip except when there was a tourney at the Frontier (long dead). I usually stayed at the Sundance downtown (also long gone). The big pot limit games were mostly at Binions when I started going to WSOP, but the Nugget took a lot of the higher action games - mainly I think because it was a nicer room (and right across from Binions).

#JULY REVIEW

[ -3.5k- ] 5k hands on Bovada
[ -nope- ] 3 hours of work on the novel
[ -X- ] 12+ hours of hand study

Don't be sad, one out of three aint' bad.

Life continues to demand a little more than I would prefer. Being a muckety-muck in a decent size organization is more demanding than being a front-line technical expert, for sure. Mix that in with family home for the summer, and those goals vanished. HOWEVER, I would add

[ -X- ] Turn 50
[ -5- ] Play 2+ longer form board games with family (Terraforming Mars)

That makes it a pretty good month, imo.

#AT THE FELT

Nada.

Rumors are the club I preferred in HOU will reopen at the end of August. I still need to decide what to do, but I suspect September sees the return of 8+ hours a week at the live felt.

Online has been meh. Both play and study feel a bit unfocused. My approach has been to examine my biggest wins and losses for the session, as well as hands that I tagged throughout as interesting. It's hard, in doing that, to look at a single thing, although I would certainly say that (a) I don't respect 3 bets anywhere like I should and (b) checking the flop occasionally would probably be smart.

#BR UPDATE

July Bankroll net: +0%. So that's fun.

#READING WELL

Been caught in a 1400 page trilogy for some time, so look for these to pick back up (with that) in August.

#AUGUST GOALS

I have a week of vacation in August, and while time with this configuration of family is often fantastic, it is rarely truly down-time. So while I hope to do some writing, we'll see.

There is also a trip to NOLA at the end, so Harradise, look out! I think I may crash minRaiseMonday ...

[ ] 4k hands on Bovada
[ ] 3 hours work on the novel
[ ] 8+ hours of hand study
[ ] 6+ hours live play

I see what you did there! Props.

Here's hoping your favorite Htown cardroom reopens...

Lol'ed.

GenjoyingstorytimeG

Thanks GxG! Glad someone is, hope to have more. This month's isn't great, unfortunately!

Haha that is some great story telling.

¨I´ll see you in hell¨ will be my new signature bust out line.

#AUGUST REVIEW

I forgot about this, which may be reflective of my mindset atm. Hrm.

[ -.7k- ] 4k hands on Bovada
[ -nope-] 3 hours work on the novel
[ -X- ] 8+ hours of hand study
[ -X- ] 6+ hours live play

The writing one is the most important. Just still hard to get traction.

On Bovada, I had thought I would have some late nights on vacation to hole up with my laptop, but instead it was just nice time with fam, so that's a net win despite the lack of volume.

#AT THE FELT

Got a couple sessions in at Harrahdise in NOLA. Whee! The room felt same as it ever was, and despite my deep love for the concept of it, 4/8 limit continues to be a bad way for me to spend time waiting for a seat at 1/3NL.

Not a lot of interest--certainly one of the sessions was just a table full of regs. A few mini-vignettes.

{Numero Uno}

Entitlement tilt is serious for some players. There was a young dude across from me who got it all in pre, and the other guy hit a Q on the turn for a set (never found out if he had KK or AA, but he had one of those). He was miserable, and had to leave the table for a long walk. Sat back down and played a really weird hand where again he lost, this time against a clearly inferior player. This one was a lot less clear--he used an odd line and sort of trapped himself into a place where the bad player's TT was good against what I assume was AK of some sort.

Same reaction. Slamming chips down, muttering, long walk. Came back, went to rack up, and just threw his chips into the rack really sloppily and stormed off.

OK, no big deal, totally standard, right?

Between those hands, he had this conversation with the dealer:

Dude: "I think I have to be top 10 in hours spent here in the last month."
Dealer: "Yeah, probably."
Dude: "Not top 5, but top 10 for sure."

So, yeah ... that's interesting to me. Is he just totally emotionally ill equipped to play the game? Having a horrible terrible very ungood day? Or just another new pro [(c) DGAF] whose heater just came to a screeching halt?

{Numero Dos}

At that same table, I got to be the mark! This was amusing, although the outcome sucked.

The V in the 1st hand mentioned above was an older guy who the tilty dude said was incredibly tight. The older guy decided that I was clearly the spot at the table--and it makes sense. Overweight OMC looking dude in clear business attire? Hell yeah. So he seat changes to my left.

And just owns my ass. Turns flush against my set, rivers flush against my turned straight. Soul owning things like that.

I guess I was the mark.

{Numero Tres}

New session, new table.

This is more just a recorded conversation. NonCapt is a little older than me, experienced rec player. Seems desparate to be the table captain. Vet is significantly younger, military vet, fairly quiet but fairly active. It's early in the session.

We have a medium pot that has seen a raise or 2, so there is some money in there. Vet has bet the turn and NonCapt has raised him. Vet is tanking.

NonCapt: "The game's dirty, but it don't always have to be about blood."
Vet: "What?"
NonCapt: "I'm just saying. It's a dirty game, but it don't always have to be about blood. I've got you. You fold, I'll show, I promise. It don't always have to be about blood."
Vet: << tanks >>
Vet, voice notably lower: "If you don't show, or you're bluffing, I promise you, I will take every chip you have tonight."

Vet folds, NonCapt shows a set, we move on.

I dunno. Standardish, but the quote is decent enough.

#BR UPDATE

August Bankroll net: -4%. So that's fun.

#READING WELL

Still not caught up, but ...

The Inheritance Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin. https://mankinlevine.com/2019/08/rea...y-n-k-jemisin/ Jemisin is reliable: sweeping fantasy with significantly deep world building and compelling characters.

My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite. https://mankinlevine.com/2019/08/rea...n-braithwaite/ This novel got a lot of love earlier this year, and it deserves much of it. An entertaining page-turner, whose core question is revealed by its title.

#SEPTEMBER GOALS

The biggest of which is to get out of a mini malaise that seems to have settled. I have fallen behind on Reading Well, didn't update this, a few other things--all signs that I'm a bit under-engaged in general, outside of all that is involved in my still-newish job.

So, it's important to get on top of all that, as they are all key to my overal health.

Unsure how September unfolds. Live poker is back as an option, but last week was a no-go, and this week doesn't look too likely. There is then a single weekend before there are other plans. So the goals will reflect that lesser bandwidth.

[ ] 3k hands on Bovada
[ ] 3 hours of work on the novel
[ ] 12+ hours of hand study
[ ] 4+ live hours

it's a dirty game, but it don't always have to be about blood ...

#SEPTEMBER REVIEW

We're going to extend into October to include last night. It ain't very pretty.

[ -1k- ] 3k hands on Bovada
[ -nope- ] 3 hours of work on the novel
[ -X- ] 12+ hours of hand study
[ -30- ] 4+ live hours

So, much more live play, largely through a trip to NOLA and a couple local sessions.

I realized that a bunch of the time that could be spent on the novel is being poured into some other stuff, mostly work around some mini-classes I teach at an arts HS. That feels a little better, as some of the same creative juices are at least being tapped. Much discretionary time in October will go to prepping for a 3 part course on The History of Hip Hop that starts in early November, which should be pretty much a blast.

#AT THE FELT

I don't know what the term is. You would think after decades and millions of posts on 2+2 there would be one. It's not runBad, and it's not even what I semi-jokingly refer to as the miniAbyss. But it's the sense of the grind, the being tired of watching people play poorly and rack up huge stacks, tired of posting moderate loss after moderate loss.

Don't get me wrong: I love playing the game. I get real enjoyment out of it, and what I'm describing doesn't really take away from that. And it's not really tilt--whatever level my game is at, it doesn't vary a whole lot based on results.

There is certainly some entitlement crap wrapped in it, but I don't even feel that terribly strongly. I don't deserve **** at the tables, I get that. And I am insanely grateful to have a life that can support poker. But still ...

It's just ... trying, in that old-school sense of something that wears at you, that rubs and rubs ... to be someone who actually studies, who invests time and money into getting better, who works on putting theory into practice, etc. And, continually, if anything, I think I am playing *better* in large pots than I used to. So, it feels like the work to just ride out variance.

But it's still emotionally and energetically sapping.

Which is rough, because, like I said, I do truly enjoy the game.

Anywho ... no real stories from the felt. The play in NOLA was solid, and even had a small win in it. Harrahdise is a strange room--the player pool feels really polarized there, much more than in the local rooms here. Local sessions are typically insane HTownLOL. 7 players to the flop ...

I did get to make some "bone-conduction" jokes last night, and who would've ever thought *that* would be a thing?

#BR UPDATE

September Bankroll net: -45%. So that's fun.

#READING WELL

Holy ****. I didn't post a single review in September. That makes it the first month in years that has happened. I have things drafted, and am still planning to update with everything I've read, but life is full ...

#OCTOBER GOALS

Let's get realistic

[ ] 1k hands on Bovada
[ ] 10+ hours of hand study
[ ] 10+ hours of live play (post 10/6)
[ ] Get the HipHopHisotry class all set