Low photo quality whenever I had to screenshot Snapchat video since I can’t easily upload video here.

Friday: went biking in the morning on a path running parallel to the Mississippi. Beautiful ride despite the river being more murky brown than blue - we were also across the river so didn’t have the hustle of NoLa proper.



Had lunch at a local bar / grill in Gretna then headed back to shower, girls took a nap, and I caught up on texts with friends re: NBA trade deadline. They woke up for us to pregame and head back to Bourbon Street.







No Harrah’s but got my gambling fix through a couple that got cuffed outside a bar. From a second floor balcony, I bet the next round against some randos that the couple would get released. They took the couple getting put in a police car, and if one got off we’d push. They were eventually released with citations.



Also interesting on Bourbon were the groups of Catholic zealots. They’d hold crosses, signs, and preach through megaphones about the dangers of sinning. I was surprised to see that ime nobody really bothered them. I guess they’re such a joke that even a horde of drunks wouldn’t mess with it.



Flirted briefly with a cute blonde who liked my shirt. She asked me to hit her vape, girlfriend gave us a look that would freeze Phil Ivey in his tracks. I made the disciplined fold.



Pat O’Brien’s flaming fountain. Place was mostly chill and the dueling pianos were cool, but there were so many legit smokes here. Highly recommend this location for single guys. Talked to a 37 year old in a bachelorette party for a while and I hope I have her charisma and desire to get after it in fifteen years.


Friday night ends with my girlfriend and I heading back, trying to order delivery at 3am, and bricking out.

Saturday, we go to a parade. The sky rains on our parade, figuratively and literally.




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Took the ferry across the Mississippi to get to the parades. Surprisingly cheap at $2/ticket and it was relatively hassle free. Not bad.

Shots of floats and stuff:







After the parade went to the Willie’s Fried Chicken on Royal for a rowdy environment to eat chicken tenders. Heavy mixture of rain, spilled beer, and sweat covered me so we had to do the ferry back to shower before heading out for the night. I caught a football from the float that Alvin Kamara and Marcus Lattimore were on. Did not catch the throw from them direct, however.


At night, went to some very cool street with tons of live music bars. Dead phone, no pics.

Overall trip was great and I’d do it again, but with a bigger group and for a longer time. There are really two ways to approach this: go hard and burn out quickly, or have enough people so that not everybody has to go nuts every night without letting everyone else down.

Back to Vegas with an itch for action. Not sure yet if I’ll play $2/5 at the Encore or $5/10 at the Bellagio since they have the same $1500 cap. Might hit both once and let my winnings decide where I’ll put the hours in during the rest of the month before I ship out to Baltimore & Tuscaloosa for my next teaching assignment.


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Nice update!

jfc what a shtshow lmao
mardi gras defs on my list

Some more pics to dump.
@everest You’re right about it being a total ****show, but you’ve gotta do it once lol. it was unlike any other experience. The closest comparison I can imagine is a cross between The Purge and Downtown LV / Freemont Street on first friday.















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Bellagio $5/10 action today... in for $2800, out for zero.

I was obviously rusty as I played way too loose and impatient as I tried to force the action a few times in bad spots, I missed clear value bets, and I paid off river bets I used to be so good at identifying as easy folds.

$2/$5
Random young asian with headphones and a deep stack buys BTN ($7). $700 eff.
I raise MP to $20 with A6ss, he calls from BB.
K42r flop, I cbet $35 he x/c.
5c turn bringing bdfd. He leads $55 I think for a bit and decide to float with plan to bomb river.
3c river bringing weird card. He bets $100 and I mistakenly think it’s $200 (playing too much $5/10!) so I just call. Miss value from his Ax.

End $2/$5 up $330 when my name is called to the $5/10

$5/10
Straddled pot vs young asian.
3! squeezed UTG and MP on the button with A7hh. $1500 eff with UTG, UTG 4! real small to $500 after my 3! to $240, I 5! jam and he snaps QQ. I brick and i’m down $1500 early.

76o in BB, five limpers to me and I check.
998ss on the flop, I lead for $40 and BTN calls.
4o turn, I bet $100 and BTN calls.
5s river, I bet $220 and BTN makes it $520. I don’t like this usually but he seems like a recreational player kind of popping “value” with trips. I think for a bit, call, and he shows snap shows K9 thinking he was good. 3! jamming nut flushes, straight flushes, and boats seems good here - I can call pmuch all flushes, 76 as I don’t think I want to block 9x when I call raise.

Make some super light 3!s and squeezes with garbage like A7hh and KJo that I shouldn’t have done and torched off a few hundred. QQ I raise, BB calls, AK7 flop lol. AQhh next hand I 3! and take down. QQ again four hands later I 3! and V folds.

88 +1 I raise to $60 over straddle, folds to UTG straddle calls.

522hh flop I bet $70 and he calls.
5h turn (two FDs) I check he checks.
Ao river I check he bets $100. I feel like I’m paying off an ace 50% here, stealing a pot from someone thinking they can bluff me off a pot 25% here, and giving $ to boats 25%

Get second and final bullet in with QJhh on T76hh after SB 3! $140 my MP open over a limper to $40 and I flatted, he cbet $140 and I shipped $860. He tank called with Ah Kc, board bricked.

Real bad session, I’m going to take some time off from live poker for a while. Heading back to 50nl online to rebuild my game and confidence.


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Quick foodie update:

Fiola (DC 1 Michelin Star)



Cocktails
Goddess Serene: 8.5; served in a badass golden pineapple. Sort of like a Pink Lady but without the egg white. Would’ve been better with egg white. Too much ice. Good sugary flavor with sweet aftertaste.
Manhattan: 10; the best one so far. Super smooth going down.
Bellagio: 9; prosecco-based flowery drink with hibiscus that came out pink/purple. Good, sweet.
Moscow Mule: Don’t like these. Ellen got.
Chardonnay: Ellen received with her grilled tuna. Didn’t know anything about it, crisp finish.




Amuse Bouches
Ricotta & parmesan with rosemary: 10; what’s better than this? Deep fried cheese ball. Needs no more description. Perfect execution and clear signal that this place knows what it’s doing. Forgot to photograph this.
Butternut squash panna cotta with granola and vanilla vinaigrette: 9; I hate balsamic in all dishes. I did not taste it here as the squash panna cotta was so overpowering (in a good way.)


Bread
Sourdough: 6; uninspired. Served with a good olive oil but no butter.
Cracker crisps: 7; Needed an extra flavor - kind of bland without the olive oil. Ideally would have had added everything bagel toppings or baked parmesan into the crisp or something.
Pumpernickel: 9; with raisins and walnuts embedded to provide the perfect sweetness for a brown bread, their pumpernickel stood out amongst the rest of the basket. Unfortunately, much like the sexiest redheads, even wonderful pumpernickel can only be so good. Wouldn’t you still prefer a smoking blonde?


Appetizers
Maple Brook Burrata: 10; burrata being a big ball of cheese similar to but better than mozzarella. Placed atop a basil pesto sauce, white asparagus, and egg botarga, the cheese had the best flavor of any cheese I’ve ever eaten on its own. It managed to be both stringy and wet enough to be reasonable to eat on its own.

Foie Gras Confit: 9; unexpectedly sweet. The cherries were the highlight of this dish; I’d spread the confit like paste on the crisps, add a cherry, and eat that cracker sandwich. Very tender, extremely rich.



Pastas
Smoked Potato Gnocci: 7.5; the duck confit and black truffles shaved over the plate took hold of the dish and didn’t let go. I would’ve preferred to taste more of the potato gnocci and pecorino. It’s a shame because done well truffles can be so powerful - but this was the more common case of opulence gone overboard.



Carbonara: 11; transcendent. The first mark of something special: the dish was served inside of a clear-domed top to preserve the heat from the kitchen. Breaking the egg and getting the yolk mixed in with the dish brought harmony between already savory ingredients. The pancetta, black pepper, and pasta would have been impeccable on their own, but the egg turned this into the official second course of my death row meal. My previous favorite Carbonara came from Mabel Gray in Hazel Park (MI), but compared to Fiola’s that might as well have come from Fazoli’s or Domino’s. A highlight not merely of cuisine but of life. Also the restaurant’s first mistake: their hubris in believing that anything could possibly come after this.


Seafood
Grilled Yellowfin Tuna: 10; served atop a flattened red piquillo bell pepper and garnished with toasted almonds. The restaurant mistakenly brought two dishes out and the busboy looked confused when I said I got the tuna, then he asked if we both got them, I responded that Ellen got the branzino. Without missing a beat, the waiter said “the second tuna dish was compliments of the chef. He wanted you both to try this.” It was kind of obvious they made a mistake in the kitchen, but the waiter was so quick to recover. Incredible. We’d later shoot the **** over dessert as Ellen and I were the last couple in the restaurant and he came to chat.


Entree
Texas Wagyu Ribeye Cap: 8; good but that’s it. I’m very particular about my steak and the difference between Japanese A5 - especially Hokkaido snow beef or from the Kobe prefecture - and Texas / American wagyu is night and day. Frankly this was nothing special and the third best thing on the plate with which it was served. Good crust and perfectly medium rare at least.
Morel Mushrooms: 10; stole the show from the steak. Somehow tasted better than meat, which I never would’ve said about any mushrooms a year ago. These were incredible in large part due to the foie gras emulsion served under the steak and mushrooms.


Branzino: 9; Ellen’s fish dish served over calamari. Good dish.

Desserts
Tiramisu with coffee zabaglione: I don’t feel qualified to comment because I don’t like tiramisu. Ellen really liked it and said it was her fav, however. High praise from an Italian who went to Italy for a few months.

Bussola Vicentina: 8; classic italian coffee cake with vanilla bean ice cream. Merely average. Had a wonderful glazed orange strip garnishing the cake that was probably the best part of dessert. The cake tasted better after the ice cream melted and kind of soaked through it.
Crema Fritta: 9.5; unique texture / taste combination and an innovative way to end the meal. Never really had deep fried crust on a sweet before - it wasn’t at all like a donut or beignet. It had the texture of the fried mac and cheese balls from Cheesecake factory (down to the bottom being slightly soggier due to the vanilla ice cream on these / marinara on The Balls) but the inside was a vanilla cream that kinda turned into a soft cake during the deep frying process.



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In for $1000, out for $0002.

I was on the way down to DC to visit a college friend for the weekend and catch a Nats game when he told me he wouldn’t be home from work until ~8pm friday. This was the impetus to put in a quick session at Live! in Arundel Mills, MD.

Biggest game they ran (and apparently, ever consistently run according to the regs) is 2/5. Cool that they allow 200BB buy-ins and my table mostly played deep.

It was extremely fortunate that this place didn’t have 5/10 because I managed to torch off $998 in just a few hours. I was super rusty and again tried to force too much action:

First two orbits I pick up JJ, QQ, and AA. I three-bet all three hands; AA is the only one that gets called. V in MP, I’m in SB. He then folds to 2/3 pot cbet on J93ss board. I like checking at some frequency here with AA but without As I think I like betting a little more. No idea if this is theoretically correct but I envision lots of opponents with AsXs will check back and take free cards.

Up to $1300ish.

Couple hands later I pick up A5s in MP and open to $20. BTN and BB come along.
AT6 flop. It checks to BTN who bets $35, BB folds, I call.
6 turn bringing bdfd, I check, BTN bets $90, I call.
3 river goes x/x. BTN rolls AJ. I don’t think I can do anything differently here.

Here comes the part where I throw some chips into a blender and spew all over the table:
UTG opens to $20, CO calls, BTN calls, SB calls, in the big blind I look down at (literally any two somewhat connected or suited or high cards that aren’t strong enough to call) 65o and raise to $90.
UTG was getting out of line with his preflop raises imo so this looked like a solid squeeze spot. I just happened to have 65o instead of a good hand to make a move with. Made the move anyway.
UTG calls, rest fold.
Flop J84r. Not terrible all things considered. I x/r UTG $75 to $250. UTG calls and I’m worried he has a monster, which causes me to play too passive rest of hand.
Turn: 5 bdfd, checks through.
River: Q no flush and I tank for a minute before checking and giving up, UTG checks behind to show TT. I get tilted at myself for not having the heart to fire the river barrel.

Few hands later I fold OTR when I bet $200 then V plays with literally every chip in his stack before cutting out a minraise to $400 with like $400 left behind.

Board: A75QT where I have QT with a flopped FD and I triple barrel. I think for a second; this guy and I had exchanged banter all day and he seemed like a loose passive rec or maybe a limp-heavy bad reg. Either way I’m beating literally nothing, I say “nice set of sevens”, he shows TT and says “close.” Not sure how he found calls otf or ott but I got owned by TT today.

Racked up a -$1006 day today after getting stomped by ATM fees because there isn’t a single damn Chase bank within 5000 miles of Baltimore.

All was not lost; immediately started drinking to the point of being trashed in DC after I arrived. Some good rooftop bar action and this inspirational sign got me through the night.

Brief update on the past few weeks:

Put in some lab work to really learn how to play preflop like a nit ***** by studying Snowie’s charts. I know spazzing out pre is by far my biggest leak as I’ve been very comfortable in the vast majority of postflop situations at 50-100nl on ACR and 5/10+ and occasionally bigger live but I light so much money on fire pre.

In a semi-related-to-poker tangent: GMan’s guest appearance on Chicago Joey’s podcast made me realize a few things (other than Garrett seems like one cool dude)...

I need to balance my life and mindset better. Garrett talked about the technique of “opening a new container” so as to avoid comparing yourself to your past self and I love the idea. The feeling he described from getting a workout is one I’d missed sorely since college and actually motivated me to return to MyFitnessPal for calorie counting and cardio on days I don’t lift. I still hate cardio but I love how I feel afterwards and that’s what I work toward.

W/r/t personal life, I’m finally done in the DMV (DC/Maryland/Virginia) area for this teaching semester after tonight. Photo dump in the next post of some fun stuff here.

I made it out to a Nats game (L to Mets), Orioles game (L to Indians), and the Wizards’ game 6 (series ending L to Toronto.) This continues an incredible streak of professional home team losses that I must have gained from my time at Boston College. In reverse chronological order other than the aforementioned games, the streak runs through a Red Sox game last spring (L to Toronto), a Lakers game last March (L to Phoenix), a USA Soccer friendly at Gillette (L to Brazil), another Lakers game (L to Sacramento), a Yankees game (L to Red Sox).

As a consequence of this unfortunate streak I’ll die on the cross. I won’t go to the Golden Knights playoff game 5 against San Jose when I’m back in Vegas this weekend.

As for plans for Vegas with the college buddies flying in and some friends’ local graduation events from UNLV/ASU/U of A, three words: catalina. wine. mixer.

actually: Cinco. de. Mayo.

“the boys are back in town” will be blaring the entire flight over from Baltimore; I arrive at McCarran at noon and have some mandatory trips to load up on party supplies before checking into the airbnb around 3. From there I’m working on a tactical plan to strike my liver with surgical precision over the next 12 hours. First Friday downtown and the reunion of lots of people I haven’t seen in a year or so will aid my quest in creating some hits.

i think I’ll do my trip report with pics in this thread rather than LVL... next update after i land tomorrow.

Pics from Baltimore’s light festival:





From a drunken blackjack half-G dust-off at the Horseshoe.. at least I walked out with a $5 souvenir?



From Raps/Wiz G6:



From Orioles and Nats games:



Quick Fortnite 11 kill carry & flex


next up: Vegas, Graduation Weekends, and Cinco de Mayo on the strip. Can’t bust my whole roll as I plan to fire a few bullets into WSOP events this summer, so we’re gonna limit gambling damage to low-four-figures. Or we’re going to win a few bands, ¿**** do i know at this point?

sick swings, make my stomach churn just thinking about the emotions you felt.

Upswing inc

imagine the four day stretch in this pic:

Wedged between Feb 3 and Feb 5 was the Super bowl on Feb 4 where I hit +$3k on over 60.5.

i was in a weird spot with my personal life at the time and i had no classes to teach at the time..

i dealt with it through a routine of waking at 3pm, doing yoga and showering, going to the poker room by 7ish, playing to 2-3am, driving home and getting adobada tacos and steak fries from the local mexican shack, and drinking white wine in the hot tub until 8am. i gained 10 pounds in a month, developed some unhealthy addictions, and only broke the spell because I was able to recognize how degenerative an impact all this had on my life before it got worse.

So yeah, you’re totally right about the swings and the stress.

Hectic week for me, both professionally and personally. The long-awaited Las Vegas trip report:




In Baltimore: I woke up at 4 am, showered and dressed, returned the rental car and took the shuttle to BWI, boarded the 6:35a connecting flight to Atlanta, arrived in Las Vegas by 1p local time, hit Chase to chamber a few bullets, and picked up the fellas who arrived early to go to an early dinner. Our airbnb was a block from the Rio. View:



Room:



By the time the VGK game started we were locked and loaded. ****in game time.



I spent 24 of the next 72 hours sober. Gambling stories and food in next post & bean counting in the third post. Here are my favorite things from the trip:

First Friday. Lots of people, lots of action.





Ended up pulling the classic downtown move: 2-for-1 drinks in the lounge and drunk blackjack at the Cortez.



Carl disappeared at some point to find god knows what before Andrew got the fateful text:


They met at the Subway (!), inside the Cortez (!!), got back to the airbnb and down to business within 15 minutes of meeting(!) and didn't use a condom (!!!) Utter legend. Also, he ate the sub the next goddamn day after leaving it on the counter for 12 hours.

While Carl munched down that roast beef sandwich, Phil and I went to Evel Pizza



Rolled down Fremont and whooped every casino’s ass on Saturday night.




Assad still has not satisfactorily explained what went on at Deja Vu between 3a - 5a on Sunday morning while Louis, Carl and I were at the Rio. Everyone else had left the club long before them.

Zac defeated Assad in a footrace for $20. It was by a good three or four steps, although accusations that Z early jumped the start linger over the victory.

There was a methhead downtown by our Uber pick-up who looked like a wacky-waving-inflatable-tube-man the way he was gyrating. Unsure if he ended the night okay.

Phil, Zac and I had to smoke an absurd amount an hour before the airport because we had a lot left over. I made it through TSA just fine but strongly considered the Cirinci-patented shove-and-run if stopped.

eyy watching the games with the fellas


Nobody in our group got more than 1 horse in our Derby superfectas and most of our sports bets bombed. I don’t even know if Vino Rosso ran the damn race. Zac put up appx 10 parlays, none of which hit because he insists on adding baseball over/unders and hockey puck lines for teams he couldn't locate on a map. A couple parlays kept the other boys afloat and Louis did some decent work betting against Simmons' stat lines on Bovada. The extent of my sports betting:


continued in next post: food and gambling

Food first, gambling stories halfway down this post:


We ate pretty well on the trip. Bachi Burger, the Cut, and Bacchanal were the highlights of each day from Friday to Sunday.

Bachi Burger: got the classic miyagi-san, my favorite cheeseburger in the world.



The Cut: still my favorite restaurant, service a bit iffy this time and the wagyu came out lukewarm. Also they absolutely owned Louis and Assad who agreed to split the Lobster Mac and Cheese. The waiter told us it wasn't on the menu, went back to the kitchen, then said they could have the last dish remaining... but didn't mention that it would be NINETY DOLLARS MORE THAN THE REGULAR MAC AND CHEESE. For $103, they better have sliced up an entire lobster and thrown it in. Ultimately, a great meal as always.



Bacchanal: competition on who could eat more plates (defined as 80%+ of the plate complete, each plate had to pass the bull**** test for the total amount of food to count). Slow and steady, I tend to win these things. No exception today, in a near-tie with Phil (but I could've kept going if the guys hadn't wanted to rush back to the sportsbook).

The five plates of a champion are meat,


carbs,


carbs,


sweets,


and more.




Gambling:

My personal blackjack goal was to play at as many casinos for which I could get support. I absolutely got cold-decked at the Rio and Caesar's once each, costing me the entire trip. >$2500 relied upon a 5-7 hand stretch at each casino and I managed to lose every single hand. I probably ran about expected at getting blackjacks, dealers busted more often than I deserved, but they also made more 21s off stiff hands than I deserved. My splits and doubles were absolute dog**** and the sole reason I left Vegas a loser. All 3:2 ofc, usually starting at $30 (my second biggest blackjack superstition is to never collect the half dollar coins so i always bet in even increments) per hand and moving up when I got hot. fwiw my biggest superstition is my fear of premature celebration - I get insanely tilted when someone else at the table cheers when I double eleven and pull a ten, then the dealer makes 21 anyway or when both the dealer and I are dealt blackjack (but no ace up so I don't even have the option to take even money).

Even writing those last few sentences got me steamed holy **** I'm a degenerate. Anyway my other BJ pet peeves - and before I get accused of being a nit dick, I'm pretty patient with the first couple mistakes. Repeated errors are what get me: dealers who forget how I like my double / split aces cards (face up, always). People who try to enter mid-shoe when I'm running hot without asking if I want them to wait it out. The mother****er who sees me getting a table-side massage and has to make some hilarious comment either about the massage or the attractiveness of the masseuse (the only people in the casino that might be treated more disrespectfully than the dealers.)

And finally, the ****ing bovada 21. Coined by Andrew and my favorite term of the trip, this refers to the dealer showing a bust card, flipping the other card to make 11, then hitting back-to-back bust cards to make 21. Examples that all happened on this trip during >$200 hands: 6-5-5-5, 4-7-3-7, 4-9-3-5.

The Rio: -$1000
up $1000 in about two hours after walking to the Rio at 3am Sunday morning to play BJ with Louis. We won all of our money at a table where the other two dudes were absolute maniacs, staying on like 13/14/15 against up-card tens. One of these dudes said Terry Rozier > Kyrie and I damn near left right then; I missed the bad omen. Instead, I told Carl to come through.

Then I proceeded to lose all $1000 back within a 15 minute stretch of run bad culminating with a $500 hand where I was dealt KJ and the dealer had AJ.

The Palazzo: -$400
down $400 in 5 minutes while we waited to get seated at the Cut. I don't know if I won a single hand.

Treasure Island: -$400
dumped $400 in 15 minutes while we waited for an Uber. I don't know if I won a single notable hand. Yeah, that's the ****ing theme of this trip.


Caesar's: +$400 & +$600
sike ***** i didn’t lose everywhere!!! Sunday: up after a quick post-Bacchanal BJ sesh


Then Monday afternoon before our flights, Louis and I took one last rip. We were up big ($1300 for me) as the two of us ran like gods over about an hour while I got my table-side massage. He was also up a few hundred. We both watched one of the NBA playoff games (I can't remember **** from this weekend, much less which games were on when) and went back to the tables.


He tilted off $900 and I $700. Our last hand involved $400+ for both of us in the middle when the dealer makes the bovada 21: 6-5-5-5. I had a doubled 11 that made a 14 and Louis had 20.


The D: +$100
Cromwell: +$200

what a sexy city at night
Harrah's: +$100
Golden Nugget: +$200
Flamingo: +$0
Linq: +$0
Plaza: +$0
The Cortez: +$0

I flushed $500 down the toilet playing craps at the Rio as well - tilted from the aforementioned sequence I went to an empty table and set the point at 4... crapped out. 6... crapped out. 8... same result. I didn't hit a single ****ing point in like 5 $60 rolls, so after the next point was set at 6 I covered the board by putting $50 each on 6, 8, 9, and 10. You already know the ending to this story.

Also I'm not sure about the rest of the fellas ultimately but Louis could've been near even before his $900 blow-up at Caesar's, and Andrew reported that he was "down to [his] last dollar" yet fought back to +$100 at the Cortez after we all left.

Ultimately, I kept the damage under $2000 including housing, alcohol, DANK BUDZ, and food. Massive win imo.

Nashville trip report coming soon.

pretty amazing stuff ITT

best part of my trip to Nashville came a bit unexpectedly on my way home, driving back to Tuscaloosa. About an hour after waking up and leaving Nashville hungover in a t-shirt and gym shorts, I saw the sign:

Turn Left on Exit 68 for HISTORIC SITE: Jack Daniels’ Original Distillery.



what kind of pussy ass ***** would i have to be not to quick swerve all three lanes and slide into that exit ramp like TT slides in NY clubs.

writing this up as I’m pissed the Cavs blew
game 2 by being soft as ****

especially JR, not sure what’s worse: his weak ass 3 he took the play before his flagrant, his dirty shove, the fact it wasn’t a flagrant 2, or the fact that him not getting a flagrant 2 hurt the cavs more than it would’ve had he been thrown out of the game. he sucks is what i’m saying.

lebron obviously good, love good, Korver icy as always, even Nance brought energy. But again Hill, JR were too much sabotage to overcome and Lue continues to be a step behind Stevens at making adjustments.

as far as the Cs, they have the third best 5-8 year outlook (1-2 obv GSW, HOU) in the league. Top 5 coach, a horde of first rounders who are panning out, a mini-mamba and steph killer waiting to come back, and hayward can’t make the team worse. **** the process, the Cs made a better team without ever explicitly tanking.

but i digress: here’s some more about the trip I made to Jack Daniels.



It was in the most rural southern town you can imagine, Lynchburg TN, about an hour away from the exit from the main freeway... I passed multiple other outposts and run-down gas stations on the way





Some pics of Jack’s HQ/Gift Shop


(purchased bottle on left, Single Barrel Select, for reasons apparent after tasting from tour)



lmao yeah this tenneysee redneck kicked his safe so hard he died. also learned on the tour Jack wasn’t the original brewer, he just did the marketing while his cousin Len did the brewing. Classic Jobs / Wozniak situation here.

each of the 89 warehouses where 1m gal of whiskey in 23k barrels is housed.




rick yard that xforms maple wood into charcoal





magical cave that feels like walking into AC even though it’s 90*+ outside. standing there felt like a chill 69*. this water running thru the creek is why they started the distillery here.



















Sinatra over $200/350ml but i didn’t like it. too smoky / mouthfeel of if you burned a marshmallow to a charcoal dense melted goo, burned all the way down. takes a week to go from bourbon to whiskey while soaking thru the charcoal.

single barrel select the smooth, clean finish but still has a kick whiskey. i purchased at shop as a result.



things got blurrier for me too after i snuck into a second tasting. i think they knew but had extra space anyway, ended up being ~4 shots in an hour and i’m not a fan of risking being on legal limit of DUI. so i took a nap on one of these rocking chairs after the 90 minute tour walking in heat and 180* heated goddamn wheat towers and grain silos and fermentation facilities then the whiskey tasting which for me turned into a whiskey enjoying party. anyhow i had to take an nap to cool off / sober up for the rest of my 3 hour drive back home.



back in title town, and remember: **** the cavs i don’t give a **** what any of these nerds say the 01 lakers whoop all these bum ass lebron teams. 17 warriors and 13 heat the only competitive teams agains 01 lakers from this era.

sick thread! Cant wait for more updates, keep the poker coming!

ty ty

I’ve been v busy with work & haven’t played live in a while, but i played a hand at 200NLz on Bovada today that reminded me of a hand from San Diego.

$1/$2 Ignition Zone
ATdd in SB. I raise to $6
BB ($85 eff) raises to $16, leaving himself $69 behind.
I call. (don’t like jam here, i’d 4b if BB were deeper though.)

Flop (Pot: $32) QJJ with one diamond.
X/x
Turn (Pot: $32) Kd giving me the straight + redraw to godly nuts.
I bet $18 to set up river jam. BB calls with $51 behind.
River (Pot: $68) 3s.
I rip, BB snaps with JJ.


the hand I was reminded of from San Diego, see if you spot the parallels:

$10/20/40 (4 handed with utg straddle)
A8hh in BB, I have $4400 or so and straddle covers.
I raise to $120
Straddle repops to $330
I four bet to $760
Straddle calls. This guy Troy plays LATB and seems to play pretty big, has made a couple big moves on me earlier tonight.

Flop (Pot: $1530) K87cc
X/x

Turn (Pot: $1530) 4c
I bet $560, straddle calls.

River (Pot: $2650) 8d
I think for 30 seconds or so about what size to take here. I’ve got another $3000 or so back. Eventually I decide to go for Vegas and the ****ing mirage, slightly-over-pot ripping.

Troy perks up and takes one headphone out. “What was that?”

**** me so ****ing hard. “i, uh... i said all in.” I’m also nodding meekly.

He snaps and rolls over KK for top boat. I leave San Diego having bombed off a $8900 pot because i can’t for the life of me fold suited aces pre.

I realize I’ve posted the hand before but not the rest of the story from that night. I was kind of tilted when I left from losing six $6k+ pots in three days. Here’s what was lost in my saved drafts...

Back in college I would make three-hour-plus drives to Foxwoods to grind away at $1/$2 and play $165 buy-in tourneys.

I would wear two jackets and a scarf, mitten up, walk 20 minutes, shovel snow out from behind my back tires, scrape ice off my windshield, and drive 90 minutes through sleet and snowstorms to a dumpy cabin in New Hampshire to play tiny against geriatrics nursing the last $70 of their social security checks.

I would play $10 buy-in tournaments with my roommates, beer in hand and NBA league pass running whatever game was closest.

Yet here I was now: losing pots of money that could fund months of rent or purchase cars without a care in the world because I grew numb to the enormity of the numbers. I traded 0 degree Boston for the sunny beaches of La Jolla.

What a difference one year makes.

Here are the hands from my last night at Seven Mile Casino:

******

$5/10 6-handed, $2k effective.
A6o in BB. Chris opens BTN to $30, I defend.
643r flop. I check/raise BTN cbet of $20 to $90, he calls.
4 turn. I continue for $120, he calls.
9o river, I check and he bets $550. I snap and I’m good. Chris looks a little surprised.


A5dd UTG. I open to $30, UTG+1 calls, Jeff squeezes BTN to $210, I four bet to $550, he 5b ships $4k and I fold.

Run a monster monkey bluff on Chris with T4o in front of Dan and Justin for pride / T4o in-jokes. Got a bit of a sweat:

Chris opens MP to $30, one caller, I three-bet T4o to $150 from the SB, Chris comes to see the flop. I triple barrel J8694 no flush culminating with me ripping $1000 into $600 pot on the river. Of course I show.

Then, some air deflated from my balloon after Chris says he tank folded A-high on river but thought about calling because my line was so full of ****. I guess I could’ve value towned him then with a smaller size?? IDK if he was being truthful there but at some point I’m just ****ing clicking buttons man.
******

The game seems like it’s going to break after Chris calls Dan’s 5b shove pre: KK vs AK for a bit over $7000 and Chris holds. But I made sure my final hours in San Diego were spent most befittingly... duking it out. We raise the stakes.

$10/20/40, four handed: me troy justin chris. I am completely degening it up well above my bankroll by playing cards with small clay disks worth thousands of dollars. I lose hands and reload by grabbing a couple slices of orange, $1k each.

******

A wealthy doctor limps, Chris opens MP to $40, I $3! to $130 with Q9dd in the SB expecting to iso the limp/call from up front. Troy 4! to $330 from my immediate left. He mostly plays PLO here but that game broke early tonight, I have the feeling he isn’t too interested in $5/10 NL. I call. Standard is probably call pre / fold to 4! here but I’m looking for action. If I have to get it by calling **** hands OOP, then that’s how I’ll take it. Call & HU to flop, SB vs BB.

K76dd flop. I check, he continues for $370, I call.
Ac turn. Hate this card and I fold to his turn barrel of $800 with him having ~$2k more back, thinking my x/j has no fold equity.

Troy: “Should I show the heist?”
**** me.
Justin chimes in from my immediate right: “hell yeah.”
**** me.
T8ss or T8o club/spade lol, I don’t remember.
Justin has a sick read on how much I feel like a Charmin-soft ass ***** when he says, “That’s going to tilt you for the rest of the night.” He’s more right than he’ll ever know.


A few orbits later:
AJss in SB. I bump it to $120, Troy calls.
954ss flop (Pot: $250), I x/c $120.
Ad turn (Pot: 490), I x/c $350.
Tc river (Pot: $1190) I check.
Troy stares at me for a second and picks up two $1k chips, then flings them toward the felt.

A weird spot for an overbet. And when my spidey senses go off, I tend to click call and pray it works out. I sling $2k in to be shown 44.
******

Ended up getting crushed after the A8 trips vs KK hand. In for $4k, up to $9500, out for $0.
Memories of a heater now long gone: priceless.

I’ll miss coming home at 7am, uncorking a bottle of pinot grigio, lighting one up, turning the jets on in the hot tub, and banding my hundos while the sun rose in the east.

Here’s to running it back at this year’s World Series. I’ll be in Vegas June 6th and I’m ready to go to ****ing work.

Also... started streaming 200NL zone on Bovada...

https://www.twitch.tv/apricotjello

Welcome to Nashville.






Not much in the way of stories - i don’t remember much from Friday night. Saturday I left the group of ppl I came with and made new friends with some randos from NYC. Just gonna dump pics.

The Gulch was cool, albeit confusingly named (hardly reminiscent of Halo’s Blood Gulch)






river near Broadway






i look utterly sauced in like 80% of pics any time of day









most places had live music which was usually tight



crackhead tried to sit on my lap when i’m on a bench at this fountain




many places v packed


good city tho

little update:

Back in Vegas on Saturday, June 9! Excited to fire some WSOP tournaments and dump a few Gs, hopefully I can get my first ever cash. Plan on playing the Millymaker, the giant, some $1500s, some Aria and Wynn $1100s, and some 5/10+ cash. Friends will be around most of the summer as well; I’m really looking forward to my month off.

Stream mentioned in last post is going well. Having people to chat with while I play keeps me sane and focused to grind, my mom and some RL friends get to watch, and I spew less (still some, but less) when held accountable by the chat.

biggest hand thus far (500nl Ignition zoom):

K5cc BB $1000 eff $2.5/5
SB has been a maniac all night, I caught him bluff jamming A3ss on river of 84299 board when I had TT. He’s also 3b and 4b like 50% of my opens and 3b so far.

SB raise to $15, I call.
Q64c flop, SB lead $19 I float.
9c turn, SB lead $49, I raise to $168, SB call.
Bink Jc river, SB x/r my bet of $340ish all in and I snap. He shows 9h 8d, I rake in $2k pot.


Next update: vegas baby.

last week before the LSAT = busy tutoring week for me. Done with Bovada for now as I'm going back to Vegas and want that part of my BR free for WSOP: in for $2000, out for $5090.

WSOP schedule, tentatively: $10065 in buy-ins. Tag-team and milly maker are the only events I'm 100% going to play, the rest will depend on how I'm feeling / what runs I make in any tournaments.

6/10 @ 10am: WSOP Millionaire Maker ($1500 buy-in)
6/14 @ 12pm: Wynn NLHE ($1100 buy-in)
6/15 @ 7pm: WSOP Giant ($365 buy-in)
6/17 @ 11am: WSOP Double Stack ($1000 buy-in)
6/20 @ 11am: Aria NLHE ($1100 buy-in)
6/22 @ 11am: WSOP BB Ante ($1000 buy-in)
6/23 @ 10am: WSOP Monster Stack ($1500 buy-in)
6/24 @ 6pm: Venetian Night Stack ($400 buy-in)
6/27 @ 12pm: WSOP Tag Team Event ($1000 buy-in) with mom, brother, uncle
6/28 @ 12pm: Wynn NLHE ($1100 buy-in)