Damn that sucks. My mom had covid back in October and she still has lingering lung issues. It's no joke.

Jiggities

Hero CO ($194) JJ
Villain BTN (covers) 66

Hero opens to $6 and villain calls.

Flop ($14.25) T85r

We bet $12 and villain calls.

Turn ($37.05) 5r

We bet $36 and villain calls.

River ($107) Qx

We go all-in for $140 and villain calls.

Straight Nizzles

Hero UTG ($190.87) JTcc
Villain BTN (covers) AKos

We open to $6 and only villain calls.

Flop ($14.25) Q98r

We bet $6 and villain calls.

Turn ($25.65) Ax

We bet $12 and villain calls.

River ($49.45) 4x

We bet $42 and villain jams for $166.87 effective and we call. I'm a little confused, I guess he was turning his slow played AK into a bluff?

enjoying the hands

all full ring?

Thanks, yeah full ring and I like the hands you post in your thread a lot better. For some reason I have to really think about most of the hands you post yet when I'm playing most of my hands are just trivial punt returns that require no thought process. Maybe I should start playing some 6 max tables to try to expand my game and thought process. Either way I'll try to pay attention more and post some hands that require some thought process and might get the readers thinking.

Starting after this hand.

Double Cooler

Hero UTG+2 ($289.15) 33
Villain 1 UTG+1 ($219.69) KK
Villain 2 SB (covers) 22

Villain 1 opens to $8 we call, BTN calls, and V2 SB calls.

Flop ($32.30) 932r

Villain 2 checks, villain 1 bets $24.23, we call, BTN folds, Villain 2 jams all-in, Villain 1 calls and we happily call.

Turn ($803.99) J
River ($803.99) J

Easy game.

Sorry for not answering sooner I just realized I missed your post.

Probably most of my love for LA just comes from the fact that I grew up here. I'm a homer. My first job was as a vendor going up and down the aisles at Dodger Stadium. The weather is great, it's hot and sunny 90% of the time and I love that. There's a lot of activities to do, lots of nice hiking. The beach is an hour away and the mountains are only a couple hours away. You could go surfing one day and skiing the next. Beautiful women. Good food. What's there not to love?

As long as you're living in your van, it really doesn't make any sense to consider moving, bc like you said LA is the nuts.

I'm not saying you should necessarily move the second you get an apt/house, but then the thought of high rent does start to play a factor.

I woke up yesterday morning to see bitcoin was at 31k and was a little bit scared. Not too much though. I was down over 100k (more like 150) in nominal value from my peak a week or two ago so that was not cool. But big picture I'm still up over the last year. And I feel good about crypto's future in general and got a pretty decent bounce during the day. My thoughts were that I should just focus on playing poker and working out for now. I had a really cool flying dream last night so apparently my psyche is feeling fine.



I made a final table of a tournament the other day the new $125 progressive knockout. But I took a huge cooler with 10 left. Lost KK<AA all in pre for the chip lead and was down to fumes so I busted in 9th place. Can't complain.

I'm staying at my grandma's house currently but yeah same idea since I'm not paying rent here.

when you say up since last year... is that from just crypto, or overall? As in, are you down $ from crypto that puts you below your total gains in poker?

Haha, I'm pretty sure I am now. I bought ADA at $1.10 a few months ago and I've been buying XLM since it was $0.20 last december. Got a dozen ETH at ~2k. When I won the monthly milly BTC was 33k but then it was around 50k by the time I got my last installment off the site. I wish I had followed my instinct and sold after the initial bounce instead of holding these bags. Oh well. I'm not sure if we've seen the bottom yet or how long it will take to recoup these losses, but I'm fairly confident that crypto isn't a fad and long term I'd rather keep my money in crypto than dollars. Time will tell.

What do you guys think? Has the bubble burst? Or is this just a minor correction?

This is all normal swings for a highly volatile and manipulated asset class. As long as your money is in btc/eth/some good alts I think you're fine long term. But it's not a very good idea to have such a huge % of your net worth in crypto. I can see how it's tempting to take the big swing and try and get rich from it but everyone would be much better off just keeping crypto as 5-10% of their portfolio.

This. Although, in your case Rick, you got your scored paid in BTC, so 20-25% could be more understandable, but in order to preserve your BR long term, I find it crucify to diversify your portfolio. I would recommend looking into buying some gold as well as putting some in the stock market ; I would also recommend sitting down and talking to a financial consultant (at your bank or whatnot) and perhaps taking so more secure 2-5% ROI guranteed annually investments, given that you are already HIGHLY invested in the crypto volatile market. GL

I don’t have my crystal ball on me at the moment….

glad to see you updating man!

any plans to mix it up live this summer?

I'm at the final table of the $135 PKO player 166. I'm like 7th in chips with 12bbs though. Lost a big pot with TT<AA with like 14 left but still hanging on. It would be nice to ladder up some here but I'm not gonna sweat it too hard.

7 left and I'm chip leading.

edit: 6 left and im 2nd.

4 left and i have 2/3 of the chips =D.

And now we got all the chips



1/183 for $3477 plus a little over 1k in bounties.

We started heads up with like 1.5MM chips vs 300k chips. Then we lost A7os<QJdd all in pre, then A5os<K3os all in pre, then we doubled up JJ>KTdd all in pre, then we called a min raise pre with JThh and flop was AJTddx we check jam vs a 3/4 pot bet and he calls it off with 96dd and we hold. He has 2bb left and we win the tourney with KJ>83os. Good game, winning is fun.

LOL

What are some “good alts”, bud?

10-15% is for noobs who don’t properly understand risk:reward, ofc it depends on how much you’re willing to lose but 30% is at the minimum what you are looking to have in crypto for someone in your financial position, Rick

A lot of this sh*t advice you hear is from conservative investors who sit on their portfolio and don’t take risks. Because they enjoy extremely minimal success with their investments they then profess to have the answers.

These people will be doing the same thing in 30 years and still be giving the same advice based upon the “wisdom” they pretend to have (they will still consider themselves successful investors for making the minimum with their investments).

Meanwhile many of their peers will have enjoyed early retirement and financial freedom because of taking calculated risky investments.

This group loves to quote Buffett. You know which quote they don’t copy and paste?

“Diversification is a protection against ignorance. It makes very little sense for those who know what they’re doing.” - WB

GG Rick you a boss!

Seems like you have a knack for MTT&gt;cash. How long did it take to complete? I used to love bovada birds cuz they'd be over in 4 to 5 hrs. I almost never have that kind of time anymore so its strictly cash for me.

LFG!

I'm young and am ok with taking a loss in crypto. I can live with losing, I'd be more bothered by not trusting my convictions and missing out. FOMO>FUD.

Moving forward I'll not put 100% of money I make into crypto, but for now we are HODLing for dear life. Diamond hands!

No plans, I still haven't gotten the vaccine and need to do that before I go and play live poker with a bunch of sick and dirty degens.

Good alts are probably the top 20 or so alts. You get too far down the list by market cap and they just look more and more like shitcoins and far more risk involved. Yeah I agree I'm not afraid to take what I think are calculated +EV risks.

Thanks. Were you trying to say "& not cash"? Are you calling me a tourney donk!?!

Yeah I think it was a few hours, maybe four or five, nothing crazy. 183 person tourney, pretty snappy.

Hell yeah! The tourney was really fun. 4-handed was especially fun. Had like 1.2MM and the other three guys all had like 200k. It was a spot where shoving any two was +EV. The ICM pressure alone in that spot is huge but then you add on progressive bounties and it becomes a no brainer. I did fold 83os because I assume they're probably going to be calling a bit wider than they should be. But I did shove J3os because I'm not that much of a nit.

You play any tourneys ever or just straight cash?

have dabbled, but straight cash atm

tight is right, I suppose.

crushing it!

4Bet Double Barrel Bluff

Hero HJ (covers) AKos
Villain BTN ($249) ??

We open to $6, villain 3bets to $17.80, we 4bet to $51.60 and villain calls.

Villain has been 3betting a fair bit more than the average player so I think 4betting is good here. Not sure about my sizing, if I should go bigger here.

Flop ($102.20) 432r

We bet $20 and villain calls.

Turn ($142.20) 6c

Now a 5 is a chop instead of a win. But we've come this far. We go all-in for $177.40 effective and villain folds. Feels good to get that one thru, that's not a bluff I normally attempt. Probably just had the best hand to be honest.

Yeah I think the field plays way too loose in tournaments. Of course there are spots where you should play really loose like if you have a big chip advantage and there is ICM pressure. But otherwise, tight is right.

Rick, remember when this happened to me way back when we were living together in IV? ****ing volcano, man. And I was saying, "Call the ambulance!" Then later, you said you were close to because my pulse was erratic. That was the worst.

Just got back to reading your thread and have thoroughly enjoyed it.

Haha, yeah I remember you thought you were having a heart attack and wanted to go to the hospital. Luckily you were able to calm down a little bit. I think I helped. And knowing the signs of heart attack vs panic attack and me saying I was gonna watch you and make sure you were ok and that you weren't having a heart attack. I'd like to think if there was even a chance you were really having a heart attack I'd have called you an ambulance. Those were good times living together at the breakpoint apartments. Man I miss Isla Vista, that was so much fun. Hope everything's going well with you, I read that award winning article you linked about Joshue Trees the other day it was really good. Congrats.

Not sure if you've seen it but the thread gets pretty good at the end of January.