I think it’s good to complain, chop borgata 10 k for 2150 each final 6 right after I post a complain here lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah had my negative variance during the session but clearly ran incredibly well in the important spots in the WSOP and ACR tourneys. That's the funny thing about tournament poker. If you run like absolute garbage in every spot in 19 of the 20 tournaments you play in a given night, and then run incredibly in the last one, you might still make a lot of money. If you run really good early in every tournament and then lose all the important spots deep in the tourney, an incredibly optimistic looking session can turn into a loser. Variance is everywhere man, that's why it's so important to focus solely on how you're playing and do your best to not let the stuff you can't control control you.

Congrats! Whine to win

Parx $340 1A

I think it must just be my computer at home in Fair Lawn that's starting to break down in strange ways; the editing features on 2p2 are available on my parents' computer but weren't working for me a couple days ago at home. Oh well.

I got to Parx around 2:00 yesterday for the end of 200/400 with a 30K starting stack. I heroed correctly with 88 on T74ssTxKx in a multi way pot to get to 40K, then lost a bunch of pots trying to bluff people who were not ready to fold ace high on river "cuz the flush draw missed." Live poker is always interesting in trying to balance that desire to bluff in "good spots" and that realization that people did not come to a $340 poker tournament to fold hands with any equity. I dropped to 13K at 800bb then 3b jammed JJ over an EP open. He called with A8s relatively quickly and of course, I held (I'm like 68% what'd you think I was gonna lose?? ).

Table breaks and I'm still at 30K as we go to 1Kbb. I get KK in EP and make it 2500, SB and BB call. Flop comes Jc7d6d, I bet 4K into 8500 (I just go bigger than normal with value since, again, no one ever folds). SB x/r's to 10.5K, which is pretty scary looking but we're obviously not folding KK, and then BB jams for 60K. As he was tanking I was watching him for any live tells and he didn't give a ton away, but he did kinda look at me suspiciously then look at SB suspiciously, and I think people tend to do that when they're strong, hoping they appear to have a real decision. I honestly have no idea what's best in this spot. I don't have the Kd so there are more flush draws available.

I know 90+% of regs just call off without thinking much about it since it's a re-entry but I'm trying to really value every bullet I play regardless of buy in these days. I think that best case scenario for me here is to run into a hand like T8dd where I'm fading 12 outs, or QJdd where I'm fading 14 outs, and I'll often see 2 pair+, with 9 combos of 76 and 6 combos of 77/66. Add to this that SB can still have the sets and probably 3 combos of 76s, and I elected to fold. I think both players can also have JJ at a small frequency that choose not to 3b as well. SB folds and I tell BB that if SB doesn't check/raise we just get it in, saying "I don't know if that was good or bad for you!" He mentions something about having AJdd and not being able to flat in that spot. So shrug, if I knew he had that hand obviously I get it in there and gamble, but I think my assessment was correct.

Plugging this into equilab, interestingly enough when I give him a range of just the combo draws (AdJd,KdJd,QdJd,JdTd,Jd9d,Td8d,9d8d,8d5d) he is a 50.9% favorite. When I throw in 77,66, and 76 he jumps to 70.6%. Once I add JJ he's 73.1%. Meaning I'm <30% against his range almost for sure, and given I need to call off 23.5K to win 50.5K, I need 31.8% equity to call. Add in the fact that SB can still have sets that call off behind, and I'm actually feeling amazing about this fold. Even when I throw in an additional 4 ace high flush draws without any sort of straight draw or pair to go with them, I still only get to 30.4%. Quite happy with this fold now after being pretty torn about it in game and afterwards.

I chip up a little bit and have right around 30K the last hand before dinner. EP opens, I 3b JJ, MP jams 30bbs, I call and beat AK to go to dinner over 60K. Come back to 1200bb and I'm playing a lot of hands but unfortunately am getting 3b stuffed on a lot and have to just keep folding. Coincidentally the guy I beat HU in the 30r on WSOP a couple nights ago gets moved to my table and either the 1st or 2nd hand he's dealt jams 18K at 1200bb from the HJ. I have KQo in the BB and again I think it's quite close but I call and beat A4o to chip up to over 80K. I continue to open a lot and continue to get 3b pretty mercilessly, which is actually really unfortunately in this event given how passive a large % of the field is preflop, but it's all good. I'm ready to start 4 betting one kid in particular with the hands that work well to do that which is sort of exciting cuz you don't really get to do that that much in a $340!

The fun then begins with a rec player who is not afraid to gamble and I'm having fun bantering with. For perspective on this guy, he got a big stack when he open limped CO at 2Kbb, button goes 10K he calls, KJ4dd he x's, button 9K, he raises to 25K, button call, turn Q, he checks, button all in for 30K or so, he tank calls J8cc and beats AQ when the river is an 8 .

So I go 7K in EP at 3Kbb with J8hh. I'd folded A LOT of hands pre the last few levels given poor card distribution so I think I might get a tiny bit more respect than I had been with this EP open. That being said, people never ever think I have anything on these day 1s, and they go out of their way to tell me that. I think it's genuinely just because I'm young and am good at shuffling chips . So the rec player calls on the button, flop AQ5sss I bet 7K and he calls. Turn is 7s and I decide to continue for 15K. I think rec players almost never get creative in these spots and will sigh fold hands as strong as a set here. He looks at me and says "you are verrrrrrry very lucky with that turn!" and folds. I probably should just muck but couldn't help myself when he said that and showed him my red J8. The table gets a laugh and I tell him "it WAS a good turn for me!" He takes it well, says he was an idiot for folding, and I'm ready for us to go to war at some point. If only I can pick up a hand now...

Same rec player limps UTG and I have AcAs in MP with 90K to start. Oh boy. I make it 10K (could probably go bigger tbh, can't imagine there are many sizes he is gonna fold to at this point) and as he's calling he asks me where I live lmao. I can see where this is going, he then tells me he wants to make sure I can get home before midnight after he busts me this hand. Flop comes Q54cc and he checks. I always love sizing the same way I did in previous hands when I have the opposite of what I had last time (I bet the same amount on flop as I raised to pre when I bluffed him) so I continue for 10K. He mins to 20K saying he's gonna see if I've got anything right now. I call and there's now about 68K in the middle as we go to the 9c turn. He checks and against good players I'm just gonna jam my 60K stack in so I can potentially rep some hands like AcKx, but I go exploitative and bet 23K, hoping he thinks he still has some fold equity if he jams. He SNAP shoves, I snap call and he has 55. River is a blank and this 190K pot is headed to the guy who called his shot before the flop came .

It was too late to play a real session online when I got home so the whole day was more or less a dud. It really is worst case scenario to bust after dinner in this tournament. Not only are you out of the live bird but you also miss a day online. It would've been better if I'd lost that flip before dinner . However, I think rec player would have been hard pressed to fold 66 or 77 or 88 in our pot together and I might have gotten the full double with his ego not wanting to be bluffed off by AK, so we could've easily had 200K going to 4Kbb and you best believe I would have gone ham that last level as people tighten up to find a bag.

The initial plan was to play again today but after waking up late and getting a slow start I have amended my plans. It's really nice to be my own boss to be able to change the schedule whenever I want to. In the past that meant taking way too many days off; in the future it's gonna mean working as hard as I should but being able to be flexible on what that means. The original plan was to play yesterday and today if necessary and then head back to Fair Lawn to go out Friday night and then play online Saturday and come back Sunday for day 2 or play online if I didn't bag. However, a friend of mine from Ramapo who also happens to live in the area where I grew up and am now staying with my parents messaged me yesterday asking if I wanted to hang out in the area Friday night. So I'm gonna do that! I'll spend some time with my mom today (she'll be home in a few minutes), then play online here tonight, then go out tomorrow and play 1D on Saturday instead of 1B today. Saturday has to be more profitable too given recs have off from work. I was only planning on firing 1 bullet today, but with how Saturday will be even softer than today would have been, I think that plan will also have to be changed.

Anyway, I'm still optimistic about the future and am motivated to never get out of this habit of grinding hard all the time, regardless of results. It's easy to get complacent after a good day like Tuesday, and it's easy to not want to play when things are going bad. I'm pushing through all of that and doing my job as I'm supposed to. I also have a lot of ACR money that needs to come off the site so if you're looking to buy, slide into those DMs. For now, time to shower, maybe get a haircut (if not today, tomorrow, it's way overdue!), then hang wit my moms. Online session tonight, hang out tomorrow, then strong poker weekend. Leggo.

Lol, chop again golden nugget as the CL got little less than top prize for 900ish, gotta keep complaining here in the future


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Parx $340 1D

Friday night I went to my friend's house to do a Power Hour because I will apparently never grow up, so I showed up to Parx on Saturday with a pretty nasty headache. I fired 2 somewhat uneventful bullets, busted before dinner break, and elected to drive back to Fair Lawn.

A couple funny things on bullet 1. First we have a guy running probably something like 80/40/10. Never wanted to fold pre and it was always a mystery as to what size he was gonna pick (sometimes he'd min over a few limps, sometimes he'd open 5x) and he was obviously great for the game. He opens to 1200 in MP, I 3b to 3200 from CO with A3hh. Friends made fun of my sizing but I think I like doing this sort of thing early in these fishy fields. I know I have no fold equity but that isn't the point of the 3b. I want to be heads up against a whale in position with a hand that can flop the nuts. It's also a hand that's ahead of his range here and I don't want to take the flop 4 ways, which will happen 90% of the time if I flat. Everyone behind me folds and he calls. Flop comes Q94cc he checks, I bet 3K, he calls. Turn Kx, I was probably gonna give up on most turns but decide I've got to barrel this one to fold out 4x (yep think he has plenty of this), 9x (hope he folds it) and maybe Qx (he's probably never folding this to be honest). I bet 8K and he calls. River is the 5c and I decide not to empty the clip when the flush gets there. I check back and he says "flush!" then turns over 83cc.

I end up with about 8K from 30K starting at 600bb, someone opens 2K, next seat calls, I jam 8K with 66, next seat isos, everyone else folds. Guy who rejammed has been pretty quiet and I go to grab my backpack as I expect to have 2 outs here quite often. He has JJ, I flop a 6 and double up. He taps the table to say nice hand, I say "thanks, unlucky man," to which he responds "well at least I'll make it on the thread." Shoutout to Ray!! He told me my running posts had inspired him to try to get going with walking and running and I can't explain how happy that made me to hear. Sometimes while writing these updates I feel like I'm just talking to myself, so to hear that someone got inspired, even if only to a small degree, by the thread really made me feel great. I asked Ray if he's posted in this thread before and he said no, so to realize that some people might get something out of this and I'd have no idea is great inspiration for me to continue updating at a decent frequency.

Anyway, JJ<QQ for 18K each soon after, re-enter, get it to 40K then AK<QQ for it all at 1Kbb and I drove home. Was on the fence about firing an online session and ended up just playing a very small session starting around 9:00. Got 44 in pre and called by 2 players in the Stars $100, flop came 974 and a lot of money went in, turn 2 and more money went in and I started wondering if I'd ran into a set. Fortunately the guy who didn't fold turn had AA; unfortunately the river was an ace! Then got AK in vs QQ and 33 in the Party 10K; beating the QQ would leave me with more chips than I started the hand with, beating both hands would have me to 5 starting stacks very quickly. Board runs AxxxQ! Argh!

Fortunately NJ loves their re-entry tournaments and Stars really made up for the tease they gave me on that first bullet. AK>KK with 11 left for a ton of chips against my buddy and solid player, and then I ran over the FT both playing super aggro and running really well. I open 6K at 3K UTG with J9o, MP makes it 12K so we can literally never fold, flop comes QT8 and we crack AA. Later SB mins bvb against me when I have 4x 2nd place and have been 3b'ing a ton and never folding pre. I peel QJ, flop KT4 he bets 50% I call, turn A he bets 50% I call, river 3 he bets 50% (which is now about half his stack), I shove he calls with AA and loses. I went into heads up with about a 4:1 lead and was never really in danger of losing it. Wire to wire!

Dan, Nice playing with you on Saturday. Mr. 83cc got me as well AJhh<107cc, guy sure loves his clubs.lol. Anyways, keep up the good work and hang in there. I'll see you around.

Nooo! It appears it was just his day lol. Thanks man!

Vinny Pahuja ? some reason i thought he is a decent guy.. i guess i was wrong

Past Week

Last Sunday was the first Sunday that WSOP was combined for players from New Jersey, Nevada, and Delaware, and man did it show! The $320 100K got a total prize pool of $156K with 40K going to the winner! WSOP really needs to fix their payout structures, the disparity between 1st and 2nd place is way too big, and there's quite a big jump from 2nd to 3rd as well, with each other jump being too small imo. That being said, I'm pumped that the player pools are combined and am looking forward to the schedule just continuing to get bigger and better in the future. It'll also be nice to continue being able to play on the site I'm used to playing on when I'm out in Vegas again.

I didn't feel good throughout my session last Sunday. I felt tired and lackadaisical and started feeling anxious about not feeling like the "new me" that I'd been feeling for several months now. I do think I did a great job during the session and afterwards about dealing with this though. Instead of falling back into old patterns of thinking where I'd feel like I was screwed and things were falling apart, I took the day for what it was; a bad day. It's okay to not feel your best and not play your A game. It's not okay to start feeling like that defines you now going forward. I ran very well on my 2nd bullet in the $320 100K and managed to take 28th of the 650 or so entries, which is pretty funny to think about. On a day where I was completely out of it, I was 27 players away from binking 40K in an NJ tourney! I lost about $1000 on the day and tried to get my head back on straight for the rest of the upcoming week.

I ended up making $2300 the next two days and felt like myself again. Tuesday was disappointing in that I got to the Party 10K FT with a chip lead and busted 6th after running quite poorly, and I made the FT of the $250 Super Tuesday on Stars and finished 7th despite running quite well. I got 55 in vs AA with 8 left and turned a 5 to double to 30bbs or so, and then ended up with a pretty weird spot. SB limps off of 25bbs, I 3.2x AJo in the BB and he SNAP rips. I had maybe 33bbs to start the hand and there were a couple of stacks below 20bbs. Obviously the plan when raising was to get it in, but while I wasn't sure that this player was capable of open limping strong hands from the SB, I felt it very unlikely he was going to limp/jam as a bluff. The speed of the shove is also a tell imo, as I've noticed the weaker regs in NJ don't give a **** about giving off timing tells. This snap shove is often indicative of a very strong but non-nutted hand that villain knows he needs to get in but is anxious about getting called and possibly going broke. Hands like AQ/AJ (maybe AK?) that want to look strong to get more FE from small pairs, and hands like 88-JJ that want to see overcards fold. I think it's rarely QQ+. So I made the call and lost to AQ and eventually busted 7th. Meh.

Lost about $1500 the next 4 days, effectively taking off Wednesday and Saturday, going to the city each of those days. Wednesday I went to see Red Sox Yankees with Tee Dubs. Boston hit 3 HRs and there were a bunch of lead changes and we lost 9-6 which sucked, but we did at least win the next night to even the season series at 3-3 and get back into a tie for 1st with the Yankees for best record in the MLB. Yesterday (Saturday) a friend of mine had a prop party at his GF's place for his birthday. She has a little deck that overlooks the street somewhere between 70th and 80th streets and it was a really good time. I of course wore my poop hat as my prop.



I made the responsible decision to take the late night train home rather than stay in NYC overnight so that I'd be at least reasonably well rested for today's session. It's currently 4:52PM and I wanted to start my session by 5:00 so we're running right on time. Gotta keep the positive momentum going for the rest of the month so that I'll be properly rolled for Vegas whenever I decide to head out there. Should be the first week of June.

Last thing to mention before I end this post. I've noticed a pattern set in and I'm really happy with this observation I've made. When I'm broke I play really hard and just shrug at whatever results occur; I realize I need to just grind every day and hope that the results follow. When I start to find those results and start getting my life roll back to where I want it I start feeling better and, in the distant past, I'd get complacent and stop grinding hard. In the more recent past, I've done a good job of continuing to grind but I find myself getting frustrated with bad results. So, I go from needing money and being chill regardless of results to not needing money and getting mad when I lose. What does this mean and why does it happen?

I think what's going on is in the recent past after I had good results I'd say to myself "alright, old you would get complacent and stop grinding hard now. You can't do that, you have to push hard." I'd need extra motivation though because now that I didn't NEED money I had to find a way to get amped to play. In the past my thoughts would be about as simple as "try to get MORE money! Try to get yourself to a point where you actually are rolled to shot take live tournaments on your own, get yourself to a point where you can buy whatever you want, start trying to get rich from this game!" So in an effort to avoid the complacency of distant past Dan, recent past Dan would focus really hard on getting big results. Then, when the results didn't come, he'd get mad.

Present Dan finally realized this this past week. I got frustrated a few days ago with some losing and said to myself "how am I getting mad right now when the life roll is doing just fine? Why wasn't I getting mad when I didn't need money and now I'm getting mad when I'm financially stable?" This was the conclusion I came to. I was pushing too hard for results because I thought it was the motivation I needed to grind hard. When I realized that, the next session I tried hard to focus on the important things during my session, and to focus on the things that I'd normally focus on when I had no money and knew I needed to grind. Make the right decisions and don't worry at all about the results. I did this on Friday and lost $500+ and when the session was over I shrugged and felt no discomfort at all. I was financially fine, I was happy with how I played, and there was no sense of urgency to win right now.

So in the future the plan is to try to motivate myself to actually sit down and play by thinking of all the monetary stuff. I'll think about being rolled on my own for whatever live tournaments I want to play, and buying nice stuff because I'm making more money than I ever have. But while I'm actually literally playing the focus will shift from that to being strictly on decisions and thought processes. I think that will keep me the calmest AND make me the most money. Time will tell!

Awesome post as always.

I'm really pumped for the new merger, but as you said the payouts and a bunch of other things need a lot of work. Software is still buggy, not being able to make a deal sucks, etc.

Hoping they manage to fix these in the future.

Also, QQ - have you managed to get any hand histories from support? I reached out and they responded like 4 days later requesting some additional info, but haven't heard back since my response.

Thanks kneehall!

As far as hand histories go, I have not requested any from support. As Gags has said several times it's definitely important they be available to protect the integrity of the game, but as far as studying my own game I've just given up on WSOP and started focusing on the other sites I play on.

Big Week, Both Good and Bad


New Computer

After years of talking about it I finally acted and bought a new PC! I attempted to get a somewhat expensive model, they didn't have it in stock, so I got something slightly cheaper that still had all the parts that seemed necessary for what I want to do. Shoutout to Jake on coming along and helping me pick out what I needed since I'm not the techiest guy around.



The speed of this computer compared to the old laptop I'd been using forever is night and day. I don't think I realized just how bad my old comp was until I started using the new one. I don't have to worry about things freezing up, I can use my HUD so much more freely without it locking the whole system up, I can use the internet and watch videos while playing. All of these things weren't possible before! I can 100% focus on playing rather than worrying about all this other nonsense. I got the computer Wednesday and had a bit of a headache setting it up. When plugging it into the monitor I wanted to use, the monitor kept telling me "mode not supported, change the resolution." I'd never had this issue before with this monitor and obviously I cannot check what resolution the computer is set at without finding another monitor so I was forced to go grab my TV from my room and try to use that to figure things out.

That ended up being a huge headache as I had to switch the HDMI cord back and forth between monitors, the TV is bigger than the monitor and I started getting a headache looking at it from such a close proximity, and no matter what resolution I changed the PC to I would continue getting the error on the other monitor. Finally after watching a few youtube videos I found one that suggested I delete the Intel Graphics Drive update. I did this and now there's no issue with the monitor. I'm just hoping deleting this update doesn't screw up the computer in any way!

Results

Unfortunately, despite the gameplay feeling a lot better thusfar, the results have been really bad and I'm back in a financial stress zone. I didn't get the comp set up until somewhat late on Wednesday and just max late regged everything. Ran horribly and lost $800 without really getting much of a sweat in anything. Obviously when you max late reg everything you better be ready for the variance of it all so I can't complain too much.

Thursday I 9 tabled and ran horribly to start but it was amazing how good I felt anyway! Without the system lagging I could just keep re-entering everything and feel pretty good about it. My bank account was still looking good at the time so there was really no stress in that regard and I just focused on playing well. I ended up basically with just the Party 10K left, needing 3rd for $1350 to break even, with $2850 up top and $1850 to 2nd. With 10 left I was in the middle of the pack with about 20bbs so obviously I'm just going to need to get lucky at this point without a ton of play left in this stack. Button jams 10bbs and I have QQ in the SB and it's go time. I jam and BB, who also has 10BBs, calls with the other QQ! Button has TT and flop comes T high to cripple me and bust the BB. I start the FT of 9 in last place with a shade under 10BBs.

However, the run good kicks in at the perfect time! (I've got HEM open for all of this, I don't remember it by heart lol). I fold for an orbit, get a ladder to 8 left, blinds go up, and I get 19K in at 3200bb with 99 vs A8s and hold to get back to 47K. I defend A2s, x/jam flop when I flop a flush draw and get it through to get back to 20bbs. A couple orbits go by and eventually I find JJ with 68K UTG1 at 3600bb. With the overwhelming chip leader in the BB and 3 stacks shorter than me, I elect to open shove. CO calls off 68K, leaving himself 53K behind, then big stack (400K to start) also calls. Pot is 210K, flop comes Q88dd, BB checks, CO jams his 53K. I immediately feel pretty frustrated but just shrug and tell myself I've done all I can and the next session will be better. To make matters worse, the BB tanks for ages so I just have to sit and wait knowing I'm gonna get 8th. After a while BB folds and CO has AK!!! Turn and river brick out and I'm now in 2nd with 210K, still far behind the 343K chip leader but way ahead of 3rd place's 114K. The day could be saved!

I start putting pressure on people as much as possible. The chip leader is 2 to my right which is really nice, as he's a fish who probably isn't ICM aware at all which makes it a little more difficult to predict what he's gonna do in big pots. With 4 left I play a somewhat interesting pot to get me a big CL going to 3 handed play. With 312K I min to 12K at 6Kbb with A5o in the CO, SB fish with 290K calls, BB defends off 90K starting, flop A82cc I bet 13K into 39K, SB flats, BB jams 77K. I decide he's gonna have a lot of flush draws, probably jamming AT+ pre, maybe wider, there's not much value, so I have to at least call, but I don't think raising accomplishes too much, so I flat. Fish also flats, 270K in the middle. Turn 4x goes xx, river 3x makes me a straight. Fish checks, I bet 100K into a dry side pot with main pot at 270K, fish folds, BB had 32cc for pair plus flush draw that did not get there. Stacks are me at 493K, reg at 234K, fish at 200K starting 3 handed at 6Kbb.

Stacks swing a little and I now have 450K at 7Kbb, reg at 320K, fish at 155K. Reg button goes 15K, SB jams 155K, I iso KK and lose to 44. Everyone now at 300K. Stacks shift a little and I now have 240K to reg's 370K and fish's 315K. Fish limps button, I complete SB with 87o, BB checks. 544cc checks through, turn 6x gives me the nut straight. I bet 15K into 24K, reg calls, fish folds, river Kx, I bet 39K into 54K, reg raises to 120K. Pretty miserable spot, we're at the top of our range but obviously don't block boats and I seriously doubt he's bluffing this spot. We do beat 73 and 32 which I think are both in his range, KK raises pre, idk what 66 and 55 do but they might raise pre at a frequency, so that leaves 54 64 and K4 as most likely boats with 7 combos of 66/55/44 splashed in there sometimes. We're just too far near the top of our range to ever fold though so we call and lose to 54. We were an 80/20 away from a 2:1 CL heads up and now have 15bbs 3 handed . I hang around as long as I can, jamming the hands that need to be jammed and hoping the fish punts it off to the reg for the pay jump, but eventually bust KQ<AK to get 3rd and break even on the day.

Friday and Saturday I went to the city. Friday it was just me and my buddy Greg and we ended up just staying at his place, drinking a 12 pack, and playing Rocket League the entire night lol. It was sorta nice to go to NYC without this pressure of going out and making something happen for a change. The next day there was a big group of us (probably 20 people) who went to a place called Amity Hall in Greenwhich Village for a birthday brunch for Greg. Ended up being a lot of fun, I got my basic white girl on and drank mimosas for the entirety of the 2 hours, and then we all headed to a spot called Three Sheets which was super crowded so we headed out to a different bar called Off The Wagon. I remembered being there once before. I tried to get in wearing basketball shorts like an idiot, bouncer kicked me out. I went back to Greg's place with his roommate that I'd met that night, the kid let me borrow his skinny jeans, they did not fit me in the slightest. I put them on over the basketball shorts, went back to the place, got in, went to the bathroom, took the skinny jeans off, and came back out in basketball shorts. I was a bit of a dolt back then. I also remember that being the night the Knicks and Magic combined for 15 points in the 2nd quarter, so I just looked up when that was and it appears it was April of 2015. So 3 years ago.

Anyway, I ended up talking to 2 of Greg's friends and they wanted to leave. One of them I've known for a while and she has a bf now, the other one I'd just met. I was drunk so I just said I'd go eat with them and we end up in an Ethiopian restaurant. Pretty interesting food, just stuff on top of a type of bread and you rip the bread apart and use it to eat the rest of the food. No silverware. While the one girl goes to the bathroom, the other one is telling me she's into me and I should make a move. I am not really getting that vibe but fine, I'm drunk, it can't hurt. The meal ends, friend #1 leaves, me and friend #2 who I've just met are now on our own, she also lives in Jersey so we take train back. Meanwhile I haven't told any of my other friends where I am lol. We end up back at her place, hang out for an hour, absolutely nothing happens and I uber back to my house. Strange, anticlimactic night, but I had a good time and didn't feel hungover in the morning! Back to back weeks of being in my own bed on Saturday night after spending the rest of the day in the city. Responsible Dan!

The Sunday session went about as badly as it could results-wise though. I ran atrociously to start but kept telling myself that it didn't matter, one run can make a session and getting frustrated now will make that run less likely. When the dust settled I was in for $3300 or so with just the Party 40K remaining, which I was in for the max 4 bullets but ran like god on the last one and was near chip lead for most of the tourney. With $8500 up top and $3500 to 4th, this tourney was gonna decide if I had a good winning day, breakeven day, or big losing day. With 15 left I was in the middle of the pack and decided to focus on really going for it. Too often in the past I shy away to the nitty side of close spots when I get to this stage. It's like I'd be content going into the FT 9/9 and hoping something would happen there, and then complaining that I ran bad to lose a flip. This time, I was gonna try to chip up and live with the fact that I might just bust 14th despite being 7th or 8th at the time.

So I went for it and finished 14th . Really aggro guy who goes deep a decent amount in the Sunday majors but plays pretty poorly imo 3x's to 15K at 5Kbb, I defend A8o 135K deep, flop AJ7hh and he bets 27K into 36K. I just really didn't expect him to bet 75% with strong value, assumed this was weighted towards a big draw like KQhh/KThh/QThh, so I jammed to deny equity. My assumption was completely off and he called with AJ and I busted. Feels kinda bad cuz I prob don't need to defend pre and def don't need to jam flop (but can I really just fold? Should I call and fold to turn aggression? idk kinda weird). However, I didn't fold down to a nub just in the hopes of making the FT so I can at least hold my head up about that. I did actually still have the ACR $30 25K going and had a decent stack in that with about 60 left of the original 1K+, but AK<AQ for 23bbs each shut that down and completed the -$2700 day.

Jake sold me a used montior of his for cheap, I'm waiting on a power cord to be delivered for it and it should be here today. I'll have 2 monitors and be able to really grind which should be fun. I'm gonna experiment with having games on multiple screens. Idk if I'll like that or not, feel like I might time out a bunch with that but we'll have to see. What I expect I'll do is have the main screen in front of me with my tables as normal, but then put all the extra stuff on monitor number 2. Videos, spotify, bankroll, HEM, etc over there so they don't get in the way of my games when I need to use them. It's been a real pain in the ass trying to get this pretty basic set up going. Got a DVI cable for the 2nd monitor only to realize my computer doesn't have a DVI port. Jake was nice enough to bring a VGA cable to my house but then I realized I'd never gotten the power cord from him! Went back to the store to return the DVI cable, asked if they had power cord, they did not. So ordered that online yesterday with one day shipping, but am being told it's guaranteed by 8PM which is a bit annoying since I'd like to start the session at 7, but hopefully they just get here soon.

With the big loss yesterday and the $5500 NJ sites downswing in the last week, the financial pressure is once again on. However, unlike my dumb past self, I will not be running and hiding from it. I'll be facing it head on and playing more hours if necessary. I'm still confident in my game and today's a new day. The pressures of not being backed and not having a great bankroll make playing the game itself a little more stressful than I think it is for a lot of my friends, but I'm still convinced this is the way to go. Hopefully I find that big upswing or that one big win that gives me some breathing room and then begin to take off on my own. I'm still confident it's coming!

It's crazy how important confidence is in poker. Head up after a downswing and committed to grinding through it, instantly rewarded. This is of course variance in itself, it would've been easy to not win any of these 3 tourneys, but man it feels good to get out of a funk and win all of the important pots.

Perspective on the swings I'm looking at when I'm actually working hard and grinding:



+5k first 8 days of the month, -4.5k next 13 days with a grand total of 1 winning day, +6k the past 3 days. These results are exclusively the NJ sites, I did well on ACR during that bad 13 day stretch and have lost a bit on it the last 3 days. Since the site is unregulated I don't really rely on the money I have on there since it doesn't feel protected the way the NJ money is.

Some Thoughts on Everything in General

Started thinking deeply about my life overall today while just hanging out at home. After being one of the younger people in the game for a long time, I've now found a group of guys who are ALL younger than me. I've always thought it's possible that they're all better than me. Apparently they do too, as they all made their own power rankings list yesterday and I came up last on most of them . I listened to a bit of a podcast one of them did and I started to really think about a lot.

Since some time in the middle of high school I've been an underachiever. Things come easily to me and as soon as they start to get difficult, I put all my energy into trying to keep them easy. Lots of potential in cross country and track; stayed good enough to run in college but never really got much better. 800 on the math SAT; start working hard in senior year calc once my grade drops to a D. Do the minimum to maintain scholarship in college, eventually lose scholarship when I can't keep the GPA needed by doing the minimum. Eventually fail some classes senior year and go home.

Now, I do always seem to bounce back. After dropping off in running from mid sophomore year to mid junior year, I had a pretty decent spring track season junior year followed by running my fastest 8K ever in cross country my last race of my senior year. I went back to college and got my degree. I worked hard enough to be able to go back to my old high school and teach honors Pre Calc. But there always seems to need to be some sort of conflict with everything for me to snap into gear and start working towards my potential.

Poker has been no different. I found that initial motivation when I moved into the house I rent, winning 20K that first month. Did I sun run? Of course, but I was excited to grind. When it got less exciting, I stopped doing it as much, and went back to being the bare minimum me. Make sure I can pay my rent and spend money on the things I want, and then what's the point of working hard after that? I had everything I wanted at that moment!

When I listened to this kid talk on this podcast, his attitude just struck me in a pretty eye opening way. He's one of the nicest kids I've met in the game and at this point one of the most successful, and as he talked about work ethic with poker I could hear him getting frustrated just THINKING about people who don't put the work in. The tourney players who just get up each day, play their tournaments, and hope to bink something, not working to actually better themselves. And then when they do bink, an air of arrogance sort of comes over them, that they have these results so they must be doing something right.

I was pretty shaken listening to this. I don't know what it was but I felt, I don't know, ashamed? The hunger and the passion I see in these guys just feels like something I lost a long time ago. It shows itself once in a while but for the most part I'm just content try to stay as good as I am now and keep paying the bills.

I'm almost 27 and while I'm not worried about getting old or anything like that, at some point it's time to start planning for the future. That time has to be now. I need to have that feeling of desperation I get when my bank account is low not just when I literally need money right now. I need to have it at all times. The work ethic I seem to dig up from my core when I really need results is always hidden beneath the surface. I need to find it at all times, not just when I pick and choose.

I'm on the fence about what to do tomorrow. Tee Dubs is apparently gonna hang around the house, which is a rarity and he's my best friend so I do like spending time with him, especially since it's not really possible during the week. He gets home pretty much the exact same time I start working and is out the door before I wake up. I also do believe in taking days off and not getting overly consumed in work. But I also want to practice this hard work ethic that I'm trying to develop, and there's no better time to do it when you're upswinging and confidence is extra easy to come by. I suppose the easy compromise would be to do a bunch of studying and maybe play cash during the day then do whatever at night. But I kinda wanna play tourneys. I guess I'll decide tomorrow.

I still want to have a bit more money before committing to going to Vegas before the main. Right now it's looking like I'll head out after mid June and maybe stay a couple weeks, but I'm not giving up on hope that this heater will continue and I'll feel comfortable to go for the first week or two of June, come back to NJ, then back for the main. Either way I wanna keep working hard to stay motivated and hungry the way all of my younger friends are. I don't wanna turn into the old washed up pro who let the game pass him by!

Interesting thoughts per usual. A fair bit of it resonates with me as well tbh in terms of things usually coming easy and then not putting in max effort. Although it def seems like for you it's been to bigger extremes with getting D's and not putting in the hours. For me it was more just always get my work done and get As/Bs but not put in the effort studying to do the best I could. Or in the context of poker not putting in the study hours that I should because the winrate is solid, when there is an insane amount to improve upon still and there's no real good excuse to not be studying a decent amount when it's your job. You definitely seem to get your ass in gear when your back starts to get against the wall. Do you think you could find ways to trick yourself into feeling that way more often? Maybe sticking a chunk of your winnings when over a certain bankroll amt into index funds and then forgetting they exist after that so you feel like you need to grind hard to be able to continue to pay bills? Obv this would secondarily also just be a great habit for helping your future self by getting as much money in the market as early as possible so it has time to grow and someday you can retire :P I mentioned it awhile back in here but I think it's def important to keep in mind that poker is prob only worth it if you are gonna thrive and not just survive. The lifestyle is great but when it comes time to leave the game for whatever reason it'll be a hell of a lot easier if you have a good amount saved up (and obv optimal to have some other skills to fall back on as well).

Was it the ali podcast you were listening to that got you thinking about all this?

I'll be at wsop for end of june so hmu if you make it out there. Gl

Thanks for the post Tyman. Your "thrive, don't just survive" has definitely stuck in my head since you wrote it in here. I'll have to figure something out in regards to keeping motivation high. I wish I could just know I'll be motivated indefinitely, but as pumped up as I am right now to study hard and improve, I always seem to lose that edge to me a few days/weeks/months down the road. Putting the money away is interesting and I guess I've already effective done that, I have a bunch in savings that I'm really avoiding touching since it's the min allowed for this type of account by the bank lol. Cracking into it wouldn't be the end of the world but I really don't want to have to do that. I also have some money in btc now. I guess I'm not really doing that poorly at the end of the day, but I feel like no matter how much money I have I should always be motivated to improve and make more.

I imagine some of this lazy attitude I have comes from my dad's sort of minimalist ideals that were instilled in me when I was younger. Don't get me wrong, he's one of the hardest workers I know, but is very content to live with what he needs to get by and nothing more. I really respect that lifestyle but I guess subconsciously I've used it as an excuse to get complacent with where I am. If you're a teacher then you go to work and do your best to improve the lives of your students and be the best you can be, and you get the same check one way or another. With my job, being the best you can be will correlate with making more money. I could still do the minimalist thing and give a bunch of what I make to charity and feel like I was actually contributing to society in some way. Or I could hang onto it all. But either way I should be working to better myself and my craft!

It was indeed Ali's podcast I was listening to and he was one of the guys who had me last on his list . I genuinely wasn't bothered by any of that because 1) It doesn't matter to me where I rank among other poker players, the focus should always be improving yourself to be the best you, regardless of where that best you ranks among others and 2) I stopped caring what people think of me several years ago. But it did prompt me to start thinking about the fact that I am the oldest of this group and viewed to be the furthest behind. How many times have I talked to my friends to talk about some washed up older pro who didn't manage to keep up with the game! I don't want to become that!

That led into me thinking about the completely different career trajectory I took compared to these guys though. Play until mid sophomore year in college, get the game ripped away by Black Friday, mess around playing home games, eventually play casinos when 21+, only take it seriously enough to be a professional 3 years ago. But I was 24 by that time which is still older than most of these guys are right now. So while I've "been in the game" a little longer, I effectively started later. I also started playing in a completely new player pool vs much weaker competition than these guys are used to. So I most likely developed bad, lazy habits to best exploit a weaker player pool. So now when I get introduced to GTO and thinking about the game from a way more mathematical technical perspective, it's much newer to me than to my friends who ONLY know that way. Luckily I got an 800 on the math SAT and I'm quite good with numbers . That natural talent made me lazy but if I can really harness it and use it the way it's meant to be used I think I could get quite good at the game. Gotta keep working hard!!!

I think the motivation dying down is a very normal feeling for most people. It's like with eating well or exercising where it's easy to get hyped up and start but it's easy to fall off and start being lazy again if you aren't on top of yourself and sticking to a routine. You def are doing way better than the avg person which is good, but life only gets more expensive as you go in most cases especially with health care/if you want a family/etc. I'm assuming you are either paying out the ass for health ins or can still be on your parents for a few more months? I forget if it's 25 or 26 you can be on it til.

Makes sense about the minimalist thing. That will prob help you hold onto money when you get it since you'll be less prone to lifestyle inflation. With the charity thing, purely just my opinion but in general I think it's better to wait until you are secure for the long term before giving away anything significant to your life.

Nice, I listened to the first half of it and will prob go back and listen to the second half. There's so much solid content out there these days btwn chicagojoey/pokergo/random stuff that it's hard to watch/listen to it all. How many people were on the list? I think you have the right attitude about it for sure and there's nothing to be ashamed about to be last on the list of playing gto when you have spent the majority of your time working on playing max explo and not on working with solvers and stuff. And I def think there's a bit of avoidance when facing using new tools when you've been used to doing things a certain way. I've been the same way with not spending a lot of time with solvers and there def is a real issue of possibly using a new tool wrong and misapplying things.

Was just talking to some chick down here in Mexico about how most of the people at the top of their field (whatever it may be) make LARGE sacrifices and absolutely work their ass off to get to where they are. And that most people aren't even capable of achieving that greatness due to never being willing to work hard enough or stay hungry or study whatever it might be to achieve what they want.

Most people go work their 9-5 type job and when they're out of there, they basically have very little to no motivation to do anything else that's truly productive. Just looking at myself, between grinding and studying, I spend a ridiculous amount of time on poker each and every week, to the point where it's hard to maintain a lot of normal relationships and I have to keep my circle very small and we have to see each other in 'efficient' manners for me as I don't have the time. In the past, I wasted SO much time due to having trouble saying no, letting people sway me into not playing to do X, Y or Z, but not anymore; basically always get my grinding and studying hours in and a couple of times per week go out and do something fun for a bit. Looks like you're always working on self improvement, just have to put your thoughts/plans into action and stick to it!

Always enjoy reading your posts dude, gl this weekend when you grind.

Have you tried getting a coach? I've recently been getting coaching and it's opening me up to a new way of thinking and approaching the game. Might be super helpful in the long run from both a profitability standpoint as well as helping with the motivation.

Yeah been paying my own health care for a year now. Will be 27 in June; the age to get off parents' is 26.

As far as charity goes I guess I meant to refer to it as when I'm set and have a comfortable amount tucked away. I also don't think it's bad to just give some smallish amount here and there. It's easy to get caught up in having less money than the people around you, but when you put things in perspective, having five figures in the bank is not a luxury many people have. Giving 1% of that once in a while to a worthy cause seems like the least we can all do.

Maybe 10-12 on the list? I respect everyone's game in the group so it really didn't matter to me where I got ranked. I always sort of shied away from using good training tools with how ****ty my computer was that I was using, but no excuses now! I definitely wanna get pio at some point. A lot of times during sessions I find myself wondering what frequency I'm supposed to bet this flop, or how often I should double barrel this turn, and I really just don't have the baseline that I imagine most of those guys do. However, I do think I have the best mental math brain possibly in all of poker and once I get my hands on these tools and start using them properly, I could start getting quite good quite quickly.

Reading the beginning of that second paragraph is pretty sick given the conversation I had with my roommate yesterday. I'll preface this by saying I completely agree with what you're saying. Most people come home wiped out from a long day at work with no motivation to better themselves in other areas.

Tee Dubs and I went to play basketball yesterday around 5:30. He normally is at the office much later than that, getting home at 6 at the earliest, often much later. I started talking to him about some of the things I mentioned recently in this thread, with trying to not only grind tournaments but to improve my craft in the meantime and get better as a player rather than just maintain my status. He told me he can relate with his job. He said a lot of people just sorta get their job done and don't worry about anything else, but he's constantly trying to learn new skills. Tee Dubs said it was exhausting sometimes since he's giving so much to his regular job to begin with, but he's seen that extra work pay off. He had some project that involved his company buying a really large quantity of the same product from somewhere else and he needed to record it in some way. He'd just been working hard with trying to improve himself on something that normally doesn't directly relate to his job. So he goes through and does this order manually to make sure it's correct, then afterwards tries to use this new skill he learned to do it automatically. He said it took the computer less than a minute to do it and there were no mistakes; it came up with the same output he did. Now in the future, that job that coulda taken 4 hours will take significantly less time and effort since he went the extra mile in his free time.

That was really cool to me, that the two of us in very different professions could relate to the same principle. While a lot of people in your field might be lazy and not working to improve, you can constantly better yourself and slowly move further and further away from the curve.

And the last thing I'll say with regards to your post Josh is that the end of it does scare me personally a little bit. You describe the time you spent with friends as wasted time and I hate looking at it like that! I've always looked at being a professional poker player as this amazing opportunity to schedule my free time how I want and to always be able to make time for friends and family. I guess your point is that there has to be a limit to it. I'm going out these times and my friends will also need to put some work into it to make sure our schedules can match up. In essence, stop looking at poker as a "different" job that doesn't require as much time as other jobs. Instead view it as a normal job that requires a lot of time and effort and realize that you shouldn't have way more free time than people working other jobs. If I find myself with tons of free time and flaking on my responsibilities as a player, then I'm doing it wrong. I've been better with all of that this month at least, and after taking last night off I'll be playing tomorrow, Sunday, and an indefinite amount of days in a row in the future to try to grind this roll up for Vegas. But at all times I want to work 5 days per week at the minimum and continue those habits forever. Thanks as always for your post man!

Definitely not a bad idea but I have this pride thing attached to my psyche at this point lol. I've gotten to where I am without coaching or backing which is not something many people can say. I've got a good group of friends around me who are very good at the game, a Run It Once subscription, countless other tools online, and I think I can improve myself on my own. The "new way of thinking" you mentioned is very important in my opinion, as having someone describe something to you in a completely different way from how you think is vital to improvement. But I do think I have a good enough group around me to get that without paying for it.

Decided to take Friday off, hung out with Tee Dubs and played some basketball before it got dark out. I haven't exercised in quite some time with my Achilles heel really bothering me when I run, it was 90 degrees out, and I wouldn't be in basketball shape even if I was in running shape. We got to 6-6 playing 1 on 1 and I felt like I couldn't breathe and had to sit down lol. After a little breather I finished it out and then we came back and caught up on Westworld. My Achilles hasn't hurt since the basketball which is really encouraging and I might try going on a run in the morning.

Today I watched a RIO video. I feel my focus shifting while watching videos all the time so I'd just watch 10 minutes, go do something else, watch another 10 minutes, etc. There's a section called "Learning Paths" on Run It Once that sort of organizes the videos into different groups, and I recently found a group that I haven't seen before titled "RIO Pro Picks." Five pros list the videos that are their all time favorites. Three of the five had "Unexpected Value: The Death of EV" by Galfond on them so I watched that yesterday. He discusses thinking about the "pot share" a certain play makes as opposed to the expected value of the play. Pot share would be EV divided by pot, and talked about comparing your pot share to the actual equity of your hand when deciding whether or not to bet when in position. If your potshare is 12% and your EV is 35%, then even though betting might be +EV, a check might be the best play in order to realize your equity. By betting you essentially win 12% of the pot, but by checking you may be able to realize more than that 12% equity by the river, especially since you already have 35% now. It was an interesting concept and something for me to think about. Just because a bet is +EV doesn't mean it's a bet that should be made.

Today I checked out Sulsky's top 5 and realized I'd already seen the first one, Steve Paul's "Improving on 1-A," so I went to the second video "PIO Solver Series (Part 1: C-betting Your Whole Range)" by Diego Ramirez. Both of these videos are part of the essential plan rather than the elite plan, but I've realize that my fundamentals just aren't as good as they should be and I need to show more humility and stop acting like I'm above essential videos, which I'll often skip over in favor of watching the elite videos.

It was great to see someone working with PIO as it's something I've been looking to do myself. I don't yet have the program so I've been meaning to find some videos that show someone else using it and breaking down how ranges do against each other on specific board textures. This video not only did a great job with that but also defined some things that I'd never had rigidly defined in my head but are very fundamental. When we have a range advantage, meaning our entire range on flop has more equity than opponent's entire range, we often want to bet near 100% of the time. Diego did a great job in pointing out that it's way better to simplify strategies; a human isn't capable of playing a strategy that is exactly what PIO spits out, so if PIO wants you to bet 95% of your range, just go ahead and bet 100%. And if most hands are going 30% pot, just go ahead and bet 30% with them all. Don't give yourself headaches trying to remember which ones should go 22% and which should go 29%. I think in the past I've been hard on myself trying to get all the little intricacies right instead of just focusing on the more important broad overall strategy.

He also discussed how if we have a nut advantage but not a range advantage then that is when we want to bet less of our range, but the part we do bet wants to go for a larger sizing. He also showed some specific boards and already watching him use PIO with them was eye opening for me. For example, when we open (I forgot if it was button or MP but I think both will be similar) and BB defends and we get the AKQss flop, BB has a range advantage! That's just not something I ever would have assumed to be true; high card flop must be better for the raiser! But because BB is going to defend a ton of Ax Kx and Qx, the board will hit him quite hard, but we will have the nut advantage since we have all the AA KK QQ AK AQ that he doesn't. Therefore, we'll bet less often, but when we do it should be for a bigger size. I think if I continue studying like this my game is going to vastly improve. It doesn't even take that much effort. Just watch one 1 hour video each day in the 6-8 hours I have between when I wake up and when I start my session. Watch it attentively and rewind when I need to, pause when I need to, etc. Gaining this knowledge could be so useful.

Played a small session tonight, and for my 4th session in a row won a 10K. Tonight it was once again the Party 10K, but no back to back since I took yesterday off. I think Saturdays are usually slow (how would I know, I rarely play them!) but it was even slower tonight due to Memorial Day Weekend. NJ is usually soft but tonight was unreasonably soft. I had 45K by like 200bb in this tournament and never looked back. Only 63 entries in this $100+$9 10K so heaps of overlay and a poor payout structure led to 7 paying a mincash of $700! I had the CL on the stone bubble and got to apply some pressure but it burst more quickly than I would've liked. I won TT>QQ in a cooler spot with 5 left which was pretty sick, woulda had 47K at 4Kbb with 5 left if I lost that one; instead have 240K of the 630K in play with 4 left. Two fish and a solid friend of mine made up the final 4 and I lucked out to cooler him AQ>KQ to take a good sized lead 3 handed. Lots of ICM pressure on the other 2 before having a 2:1 lead heads up. The heads up didn't last long.



These Party overlays have been good to me the last 2 sessions/wins. $1800 overlay on Thursday when I got 29% of the prize pool = free $522; $3700 overlay tonight when I got 30% = $1110 free. Total $1632 more than I would've got if there was no overlay! Crazy! Think I might need to use that money to head out to Vegas soon . If I break even or make money tomorrow I think I'll most likely leave for Vegas in this next week. If I have another -3K Sunday then I'll just get back to the online grind all next week. I'll play it by ear for the most part. But Tuesday I say I need to start running good so I can go to Vegas and I proceed to make $8700 the next 5 days (with 1 day off). Must be nice!!!

It’s funny that when you run good I run good also, just chop borgata 10k wed ICM 3 way chop for 2.4ktoday, pls keep running good so I can run good also


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I don't know why he didn't link it here but Daniel has a package for the WSOP posted in the staking thread.

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/1...ckage-1713417/

Yep as Doug said above, please check out my Vegas package! Still got some to sell and it starts in two days!

Sunday

I had a great conversation on the phone with my mom before my Sunday session that touched on some of the things I discussed with Tee Dubs and some new things. The most important thing I got out of the conversation was that both my mom and I agreed that when we find something we are good at and get into a rhythm with it, we both seem to start to shy away from it! We tried to come up with a reason for why that is, and the best thing we could think of was the simple fear of failure. I think for me it's also the search for a new challenge mixed in with that. I start to see myself getting to my full potential and I think subconsciously I worry that I'm gonna get stuck and realize I'm not the best there is at whatever I'm doing. So rather then put it all out there and risk realizing there are people better than me when I'm at my full potential, I'd rather just be a jack of all trades and try to get "pretty good" at something else.

I love poker though! It's my passion and has allowed me to live a pretty cool lifestyle. So when I was able to consciously think about those things that hold me back I realized how weak-minded that way of thinking was. I've been feeling very motivated to work really hard at becoming better at this game.

Sunday's session went well. I finished 5th in the Stars $200 40K for $2500ish and 4th in the Party 10K for $900 (couldn't quite win a 10K my 5th session in a row!). Another winning day got my 5 past sessions up to +5 figures.

Rest of the Week

Monday was a small losing day and then Tuesday I crashed back down to earth a bit in the form of 3 bricked $250 Super Tuesday bullets and a bunch of whiffs in $100s for an $1800 losing day (pretty much exactly how much I profited on Sunday). I lost KK<AK for 25K each at 200bb on bullet 1, 88<AA vs an active opener on bullet 2 (I 3b jammed 28bbs vs an MP open, might be questionable, definitely unfortunate to run into the nuts though). Bullet 3 went better and I won a 100K flip at 2400bb to move to the top of the leaderboard. I stayed near the top 3 from 30 down to 18 remaining with 12 paying. I then most likely misplayed JJ, only losing 18K of my 180K in the hand, but playing it too passively and it's quite possible that I wouldn't have busted had I just cold 4b jammed pre. A few hands later I get AA in vs 77 and lose on the xxxx7 runout, leaving me with 60K at 5K. Finally I jam A3 in the CO, get called by 77 in the BB, and this time get the A8654 runout to bust 15th with 12 paying.

Things have become a lot more clear to me though in regards to variance. Since I've been playing almost every day it's been easy to see which specific hands can define whether you have a winning or losing session. If I hold with AA, I almost certainly FT the tournament and have a shot at the 6K or w/e was up top. Winning that tourney would leave me with a +$4K day instead of a -$2K day. I also probably would not feel too bad about misplaying the JJ had I won the tournament. Last week I won all of those big spots which led to me winning 4 of the 10Ks. How many spots did I have in those with 10 left where I might have misplayed a hand but didn't dwell on it since I eventually won the tournament? It's so easy to forget about whether or not you're playing well based on how your session ends. So I think I did a much better job on Tuesday of realizing that yes, maybe I made a mistake here and there, but I shouldn't beat myself up over it any more than I'd beat myself up over bad plays during winning sessions.

The other big thing I got from my conversation with my mom was her telling me to just go for it when it came to going to Las Vegas. After talking to her I realized that if I didn't just go ahead and book the ticket, I was gonna find an excuse for why not to go. "There's a million reasons not to do something" pops into my mind whenever I think about my mindset towards doing things outside of my comfort zone. The last 2 summers I've always had a bunch of reasons for not going to Vegas. And it would've been easy to say "well, I bought a laptop this week (did I mention that yet?), and I hit the $1800 losing day on Tuesday, let's just wait another week to spin this roll up a little bit." And then when I have a bad week, decide I'll just wait for the main event. And then find a way to not play the main. So I booked my flight for Thursday at 3:20pm and put together a package and got ready to go.

Which leads me to now! I'm sitting at my gate at Newark Airport waiting to hop on a flight to Dallas which will then transfer to Vegas. I'm a little nervous about the time in between landing in Dallas and taking off. There's only 40 minutes between those two points in time and if my past experience with flying mean anything then there's about a 50/50 shot we land before that other plane takes off. I've never done a layover on a plane before; in fact, I've also never gotten on a plane without someone else before either, so I'm really pulling the band aid off with this one . Hoping for a safe flight and to get into Vegas tonight!

Safe travels sir!

Good luck in Vegas, Dan.