I always feel like if I don't update for awhile, my next update should be FIRE, but then I never get around to making a really nice one, oh well whatever something is better than nothing so here goes:
*reads back at what I wrote last* wow! I didn't write anything about Vegas at all! Um let's see I focused on live poker when I was there to mix it up from online, which I had been focusing on maximizing $$$ table selecting. Some of the funnier hands from online played in April/May (sorry not in the mood for any NLHE strategy/interesting hands):
Hand 1: villain traps strong hand preflop, flops trips and traps flop/turn to jam river
Hand 2: ehhh, it works most of the time, villain got unlucky
Hand 3: villain peels flop light and hits the best possible turn card for his hand
Hand 4: pretty ambitious river shove on this texture
Hand 5: this was kinda a light AIPF call from the BTN
Hand 6: button clickers usually don't click THAT one
Hand 7: this hand is (relatively) tame but it's my biggest online pot. I don't usually dabble with 10/20 but couldn't resist jesus seating this guy
Anyway in Vegas I ran good in cash there, but lost lots back in MTTs. I had an extremely tilting experience where I minraise/called off with QQ for ~10bb then bubbled a $2k satellite to the main when I could have folded to the money, although it wasn't clear at the time. Oh the reason it was tilting is I should have just jammed (prob woulda gotten called by AK anyway), and also that every single hand took ~10 minutes from people tanking. I was even the main beneficiary being shortstacked after that hand and I was still annoyed at the pace. Busted main on Day 3.
I shared a room with Sol Reader who convinced me to grind online PLO, I mean, ehhh, OK. I feel like I just invested a ridiculous amount of study in online NLHE and was finally starting to reap the benefits so it kinda "doesn't make sense" to ditch that (oh by the way, no one does this but it'd probably make more sense for poker players to include study time in their hourly). But I still try my best to follow the ideals a younger me was impassioned by, to do what you love, do what you want to in the moment and don't worry about the $$. I'm still a believer but faith requires more effort these days
After Vegas I traveled back to LA to hang out with my Riot friends while I was still on the west coast, then visited and stayed with a friend in Denver for 3 weeks (with a really weird day of travel where I had a tire blowout at 90mph then stayed in a nearby hotel, got high and was pretty sure I was hallucinating but nope, there was a fk'ing CAT in my room), went on another painful $15k downswing that demoralized me and sent me back to recharge in Little Rock where I've been for the past few days. I suck at dealing with downswings, I feel like with how long I've been playing poker I should be better at shrugging them off, oh well. I also get super high emotions from poker I guess so it balances out, a big winning day often feels better than sex.
Single again now too, unfortunately, possibly related to previous sentence? Ah well.
But yeah recently been studying/grinding PLO hard. I kind of regret not starting off my career with online because damn I could have been so much better at poker, but oh well better late than never, and actually who knows if I even would have enjoyed it back then which again is more important than $$$ (
"I LOVE PEOPLE. All kinds of table chat I find interesting."- 2012 me).
Right now I guess with a live background my biggest leaks I'm struggling with are tending towards being too loose in all situations, and also find that I'm still approaching spots with a very vacuum/exploitative mindset instead of developing a solid fundamental strategy despite my best efforts. But ehhh I mean I guess another big leak as a professional is that I'm afraid I'll just get bored and lose motivation to play after I finally get good. But right now I'm enjoying the grind/study.
Hand 8: Most of my volume is at 1/2 but as always not afraid to shoot when certain players show up.
Hand 9: Optimal river sizing to tilt villain for the rest of their session
Botanical gardens in Denver: