I misread the hh. I think we should still bet but bet really small. Like $50.

^ Villain had K8.

hmmm I got a couple more interesting IP river spots.

UTG limp, Villain open to 20 in MP, hero call with AKQ6 in CO, BB call, UTG call. Villain is very loose recreational player, playing maybe 90/20 or so.

Flop KK3, pot $80
Everyone checks to hero who bets $65, MP calls.

Turn A, pot $210
Villain checks, hero bets $125, villain c/r to $300, hero call.

River 7, pot $810
Villain checks, hero bets $300, villain c/r to $900 all in and after some time shows a 3, hero?

Hand 2: UTG limp, UTG+1 40, hero call in HJ with AKT8, BTN call, BB call.

Flop KQ5, pot $200
Checked to hero who bets $150, only BB call.

Turn T, pot $500
Check/check.

River 7, pot $500
Check, hero?

I have to save interesting hands for my podcast but yea here's a couple I'll share here.

Sick spot with Kings full, I don't play much PLO but I would call, could villain take this line with underfulls?

With the 2p I think we can go for like 1/2 psb for value, probably have to fold to a c/r

1 - call against this type of player I think, fold versus most villains

2 - I'd probably check versus almost all villains, vbet versus very loose passive types. When vbetting I'd expect to get called with 55/KQ/KT with around the same frequency as <K7 versus most fish.

We are in the middle/bottom part of our range when we get to the river like this

Hi, just listened to your March podcast on your story getting into poker and had a few questions. Sorry in advance if the answers are somewhere buried within this monstrous thread.

1. What exactly did you used to do for the USFDA? Job title?

2. What is your job title and what do you do now that you work for them part time? Was this transition negotiated at the time that you "quit" ?

3. What percentage of your income comes from this part time real job vs. poker?

4. What's avg stakes and volume you play now that you've been doing this a few years? (I assume this has more or less stabilized by now?)

5. Do you plan to continue to try to move up as far as your bread and butter volume stakes? (not including random huge games that start due to epic whales)

Me: I currently work as an electrical engineer, but my avg hourly over the last couple thousand hours of poker is higher than my day job. I think I prefer staying where I am and keeping poker part time, but also wonder if maybe I'm just afraid of change and instability. Constantly reevaluating, so your input on above questions is appreciated.

Hand 1 I tanked a pretty long time while villain was talking the whole time and eventually villain talked me into a call and we chopped. I figure he has 2 combos of AK and 1 combo of AA here only, so the only 2 things to really consider here was 1) weighting in favor of AA due to preflop and 2) weighting in favor of AA again due to flop action. However pot odds were too good to pass up.

Hand 2 I had a somewhat spazzy image as I just triple barreled off my 200bb stack so I went for a very thin value bet for $210. In retrospect this is way too thin and a check is better. Villain called with QQ which I'm surprised he played this way at all.

1. What exactly did you used to do for the USFDA? Job title?
Officially, bioinformatics. I worked with a bunch of non-native English speakers though so I ended up transitioning into doing more technical writing than what I started off on (statistical analysis type stuff)

2. What is your job title and what do you do now that you work for them part time? Was this transition negotiated at the time that you "quit" ?
Now my official job title is Technical Writer since that's what I mostly do. A few months after I quit, they surprised me and contacted me to get me back part time which ended up being really good for me.

3. What percentage of your income comes from this part time real job vs. poker?
It varies but over the course of the past 3 years, my total income breakdown was probably something along the lines of 70% playing poker, 15% part-time FDA job, 15% poker coaching.

4. What's avg stakes and volume you play now that you've been doing this a few years? (I assume this has more or less stabilized by now?)
Hasn't quite stabilized but roughly around 1k or 2k buy-in games tends to be my preference.

5. Do you plan to continue to try to move up as far as your bread and butter volume stakes? (not including random huge games that start due to epic whales)
My interest in moving up is meh. I've considered trying to get staked in San Diego's bigger PLO games but have never made any effort to do so, so i guess now would be a good time to mention that if anyone would be interested in discussing this, feel free to PM me. I dabble in them every once in awhile when I'm feeling adventurous but am not comfortably rolled to play them.

You have to listen to your heart man. If you've already listened to that podcast and I'm sure you've done your research, really only you have the best guess as to whether you'll like it better. As I probably mentioned in the podcast my #1 suggestion if you do take the dive is to have a backup plan.

move to vancouver and I'll stake you in my 100 plo home game

how big are san diegos big plo games?

Comes in waves.
Biggest consistent game is 5/10 (5k)
There is a 2/5 (2k) on weekends
Friday's is a 2/5 (1k)
And then off and on 10/20 or 25/50 will pop up.
I think a lot has also gone to home games.
(Disclaimer:haven't played in San Diego since the beginning of the year, so may be a bit different now)

I'd only want it for 20/40+

But as Brown Keeper said it seems to be constantly in flux, compared to LA for example the player pool is much shallower so the availability of good games (I have no interest in sitting in crappy games) could depend on even just a few specific people

Speaking of staking, I've put up a marketplace thread for the WSOP main event this year which I am going to play in no matter what:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/18...-2-mu-1529635/

is 2+2's search function broken for anyone else right now? I keep getting this weird error message:

"The following errors occurred with your search:

1. Could not find phrase '1'."

It only lets you self search 500 times lifetime and then that message comes up

i should have seen it years ago then!

This was more fun to me than it should have been:

BTN straddle $10, villain in BB calls, I raise $40 from HJ with AKJ5, BTN calls, villain calls. He is younger guy who just got stacked with his AA AIPF vs. some cheese and seems tilted.

Flop J82, pot $120
Checked to me, I bet $80, V2 fold, V1 call.

Turn 2, pot $280
Villain leads $125, I call.

River 8, pot 430
Villain leads for $320 putting me all in, I call MHIG.

The hand itself is whatever, but villain went nuts after the hand and told me how bad of a call it was and that I would lose 9/10 times. I told him completely deadpan that I only called because I had the A so I knew he didn't have the nut flush draw, confusion throughout the entire table ensues.

Did that 16 years ago. Asked the right players for advice as you have. Was told by one that "yes you can definately profit consistantly" but the life as a poker pro is extremely hollow"... he was dead on and another player said " yes it's very easy but quiting job and all other major time investments is a necessary part of it". He was also dead on. Best memories of my life were all 16+ years ago... none of the memories in poker have substance. These people we talk to and find interesting are very very rarely who they portrayed themselves to be as it is all just an act to trick each other daily. Hope that all is helpful to people making the choice. Also on personal note: once you've grinded long enough to realize how hollow it is it is too late. Years have been invested in time, energy , money etc perfecting the craft, image, and intimate observation of thousands of people .... and at this point I see no way or reason to throw all that knowledge away. So love it or hate it your a poker player till death. Enjoy

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This is overly pessimistic- bordering on delusional. Did you get stuck in LLSNL consistently near bankrupcy and "intimately observing people" for those all important live tells? I pity that existence

You are of course correct on most points. However, you are not necessarily a poker player for life. I have seen multiple grinders leave the game to never return.

I worked in software development for many years. I left that and then worked in real estate development/finance for years. I left that and then worked in the healthcare insurance industry (operations mgt) for a couple years. I then left that to play poker. There is no reason I couldn't quit poker to do something else.

Damn, buying into 10K ME like it's nothing, you must be making a lot of money now with poker hahaha.

@wtfomguserious

wtf, omg you serious?

@TheStuntman no way man if it was "like it's nothing" i wouldn't sell action T.T

Haha, well you were planning to play it no matter what.

Everything from Google imaging people's watches and glasses to sneaking peaks at players cards to Google players names... then there's the basics like monitoring calls to see if people are in good bad or stressfull moods any given day and checking out seemingly average shoes to see if they are custom Italian loafers priced at 2k... and the favorite is checking to see if the keys shown at tables match the car in the lot. Often they do not. It is hollow as I stated.. learn for yourself or take my word for it... these things may seem extreme and yes many players don't waste time on em but I find it to be a necassary evil to successful reads on actual hands. Any info becomes very meaningful ocasionally on hero calls or horrible people to try bluffing etc. Not pecimistic just realistic. Not an argument just a statement. You can be optimistic and I encourage it. Just sharing my experience. Glglbreakaleg

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