Hello, World!

I’m a 30 year old random guy who is looking for direction in life. I’ve played poker off and on for the past 10 years, with varying levels of seriousness. I was watching a great Gary Vaynerchuk video that he posted entitled “Document, Don’t Create”. That video was my inspiration to start blogging.



While at University, I would grind the $1/2 LLSNL in my local casino and also some micro-stakes online. I even played Razz while FullTilt was available in the USA. Super fun stud variant.


Recently, though, I’ve been introspective and questioning the decisions I’ve made & where I’m heading. Frankly, I’ve decided I am not happy with my current direction in my life, specifically with my career. I’ve been in hospitality (see: working in restaurants) and I’m … bored of it. Tired of it. Upset with where this road goes.

I’ve decided I’m going to “go back to school”, so-to-speak, to learn to write computer programs. In June, I enrolled in Udacity’s Intro To Programming Nanodegree and successfully completed the coursework.

The course does a nice job overviewing the paths one can take to have a career as a developer. From Front-End (html/css) to the backend (they use Python to teach the principles), I really liked the way they presented the coursework.

After completing this course, I decided to choose a different route. I’m going to learn to write iOS applications. I’ve purchased and began coding-along to some video tutorials on Udemy. I’m not sure this is the best method to ACTUALLY learn how to create apps. I’m not far-enough into the program to apply what we’ve learned to my own app ideas. Once we do server-side/Firebase stuff, I’m going to concurrently create my own projects.

On the poker side of things, I’ve decided to get back on the felt. It’s been a few years since I played at all, but I’ve been wanting to have more to do in my life so I was brainstorming hobbies and settled on poker. It’s intellectually stimulating && can put some more money in my pockets. Win-win, if you ask me.

I have a super-small roll right now .. like 2 buy-ins small. Itty bitty. BUT I work full-time in the restaurant and can easily save & reload if I were to go busto.

I’ve always wanted to get into blogging, and this seems like a good place for me to reflect on poker, coding, and life in general. 2p2 has an active community and I feel like I’ll be more inclined/motivated to keep writing if I have some interaction at all. PG&C, I think, will be a better spot on the internet to post my musings than, say, a random Wordpress site. As I learn & grow with my knowledge in programming, I may create a personal website. But it’s better to get the ball-rolling in a direction than wait until the conditions are perfect.

You can expect this blog to be a repo of various thoughts across all of the aforementioned topics. It’ll be less poker than other threads, but hopefully it will be something that creates interesting discussion and brings like-minded people together.

My goals are, in very broad strokes:

1 - study coding every day. At least 2 hours working on projects.
2 - Play poker every week. At least 1 session.
3 - Write in this blog every week. At least 2 posts per week.


Thanks for reading & sharing this moment in my journey through life. Talk to y'all soon.

Shaking Off the Rust

Walking into the casino, I was met by the familiar smile and nod from Mike, the security guard posted just outside the poker room. Ever since that first time, when he was surprised my ID read that I had 28 years and not 21, he has remembered me and greeted me with pleasantries and a lingering handshake.

There was no wait Wednesday night to get into a $1/2 game, so after going to the cage for $300 in red && $100 in quarters for reloading, I was in the game. Without a required posting of the blinds, I didn’t have to wait for the BB to come around to me and I wouldn’t have any time to observe the tendencies of my stablemates as the first hand I was dealt immediately was cause for play.

In the MP, I look down at A10 and all folds to me. I opened to $10 and got five callers. Delicious. With effective stacks approximately $200, we see a beautiful Q102 come out on the flop. After the blinds checked, I count out 6 red chips and fire a c-bet of $30. Only the button called and the turn comes out the 8, and we go check/check. The river bricks as well, leaving me with MPTK. I check/called a $30 bet, thinking I’m going to be losing the majority of the time, but I wanted to get to showdown to advertise that I call down light, hoping later in the session this will be the nugget of knowledge the table remembers and will pay off for me. So, after losing to the buttons Q9o, I flip over my cards and tap the table. Nice hand, sir.

After topping off, I spent the next 45 minutes seeing nothing but napkins and speculative hands that were situationally incorrect to play. Things like KJss UTG, AJo in the SB after a raise. Easy folds, ones that I have learned the hard way are a black hole for my money .. when it goes in, boy, it sure is rare that it comes back to me.

With chips flying everywhere, I found another opportunity to get some money in the middle when I pick up KK in the small blind. A new player limped in middle position and he was iso-raised by a very tight player, but to only $8. He clearly has an understanding of what-to and not-to play pre flop, but his sizing seemed weird for a super premium (QQ+), so his range here is something like TT+, AQo+, excluding Aces. Homie would have raised more here. After immediately calling my $30 3-bet, I put his range at TT-QQ, weighing it closer to TT given how quickly he called. I think he would have at least considered a raise with the ladies.

Our flop came just as I hoped, all low cards with a 952 rainbow board. I c-bet $45 expecting to get at least one street of value, but he unexpectedly shoved all in for $180. 99 is possibly in his pre-flop bet/call range, but I think with sets this guy will play it slower and call my c-bet hoping to trap me. I called and we’re good vs our villains JJ

Shortly thereafter, the table played a ridiculous pot together, where 5 players saw a flop where a $100 short-stack got all in from the BB with AA. He ended up losing to player’s 46 and went off the rails with his tilt, berating the older gentleman for not knowing how to play and “why are you calling with that garbage”. In fact, the Q9-guy on the button from the previous hand had KK that he flat-called twice during the betting round, in position. Needless to say, I was very happy to be playing with these particular folks.

With my stack stalled around $500, I was looking for an opportunity to play deep with the only player at the table that had me covered. I got an opportunity when he came back from a break and straddled in the cutoff. All folds to me in MP and I opened to $12 with 44 and only he && a reg player called. Our villain in question is a thinking player that, in my opinion, plays too many hands pre flop and calls too many hands post. The three of us see a KK3 flop and, after being checked to, I fired a $25 c-bet and take it down.

For the next two hours, I played my normal snug, TAG-ish style that saw me win a few pots but without showdown. Tilty and I tangoed twice, once where I had KK and over shoved the flop, and the other where I 4-bet him pre flop and he angrily folded.

After hour 3 of the session, our table broke and I had to decide what to do. I could book a solid $300 win, my first session back after years of inactivity, or I could switch tables and run it back a few more times. I chose the latter.

What I didn’t know was that we are ALLOWED to “go-south” when switching to a new table. In my experience, when you change tables but remain in the same stakes, you have to keep the same amount of money on the table as you started. Not here, not today. With that knowledge, I went to the cage, put $150 in quarters in my pocket and $230 in my wallet, effectively ensuring myself at least a break-even session. Hazah!

The new table was less remarkable than the former, a few grinder-ey types and two old dudes who were clearly friends. I generally don’t like playing under these conditions, but I was happy just to be playing and especially so because I got immediate position on two players from my previous table, the deep-stacked LP and the nitty-JJ fellah.

About an hour in, I saw an opportunity in position to pick up some dead money. One of the Italian man-friends opened to $10 in MP, something he was doing quite often. He was working his way through his third buy-in from opening too light and either folding too often pre flop or holding on to everything post. Both deep-stack and Nitty-guy call and I’m on the button with K9 Seeing an opportunity to use my tight image and scoop some free money, I 3-bet up to $35 and was less than enthused to get two callers.

The flop ran out KQ3 and the short stacked Italian guy shoved for $65 more. I’m not happy about it, but I’m also not folding Top pair of anything to this guy. I made the call and my one pair is good, followed by he and his friend making jabs at my raise pre flop (possibly not wrong).

Overall, I’m really happy with how I played on Wednesday night. I ended up walking up 2 buy-ins which is a huge boost to my super small bankroll. This was also the first session I’ve ever taken notes, so it was interesting for me to finish a hand and then immediately pull out my phone and quickly transcribe everything that happened. I felt more alert and focused than I remember being in the past, but maybe that has to do with the maturity that comes with being older & the experience that time ensures we gather.

Until next time, here is some funky music for your enjoyment.