This is going to be a thread chronicling the (mostly) live poker sessions at various venues and stakes in the United States of America (and once I have the time to take a trip out of this country, abroad as well)!

My job as an LSAT test prep instructor demands that I relocate every few months to a different location. Generally, I have no idea where I’ll be until a couple weeks before my assignment. It doesn’t bother me as I love to travel, I have no long-term commitments, and I make good friends in new places quickly (Ithaca, NY during the summer when the Cornell kids are gone notwithstanding. I’m pretty generous with my location rankings and I generally see the positives of things, but god what a ****hole: worst location so far. If I went to the worst Ivy (lol jk who cares) in this dump I’d throw myself into a gorge too.)

I will be attending Columbia Law School in the fall of 2019, often wear a BC hat and be relatively easy to talk to in the games so if you want to chat irl just say something! I’ve talked above hands irl with other 2+2ers from my threads in the past. Currently play regularly at Seven Mile in SD and Encore $2/$5 or Bellagio $5/10 in Las Vegas.

This thread will also contain my occasional trip reports, generally with college buddies or friends from my hometown, Las Vegas

Places I’ve lived thus far, and stories about each to be coming:

Las Vegas (best to worst: Encore > Aria > Bellagio > Planet Hollywood > GVR > The Orleans weirdo games that only old people, degens, peaceful ex-felons, and dudes who read the first half of Super System play > Caesar’s > Venetian > Hard Rock Hotel > Bally’s)

Chestnut Hill (best: Foxwoods, second best: The Poker Room in Vermont, nut low dumpster: Twin River in NH)

Trumansburg, NY (surprisingly decent room in both action and game availability in upstate NY at the Del Lago casino at 1pm on a Wednesday afternoon. My flight returning to Ithaca got reassigned to Syracuse because all the college students were returning to Ithaca that weekend so their dinky ass airport couldn’t handle the demand. My plane was full of pissed off Cornell parents. I had to drive from Syracuse to Ithaca so I took a little detour through the Del Lago which is literally surrounded by miles of vegetation, freeways, and farmland. Played $1/$2/mandatory $5 and dumped my $900 stack as I left on a flip.)

Detroit, MI (MGM > Motor City > Greektown. Only really played at MGM due to bankroll tightness at this time, couldn’t afford MC’s 5/10 round by round or I would’ve camped out there.)

San Diego, CA (Seven Mile > Sycuan. Haven’t tried Ocean’s yet. Seven Mile floors make weird rulings, with the exception of younger woman who’s more relaxed and talks with the floor. Good food with generous hourly comps so you can always eat something each session for free. Sick view overlooking water at sunset. See next posts for pics)



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I will begin this thread in the present, January 25, 2017, spinning posts from both the past and future sessions

Monster sesh Wednesday. Got to seven mile around 3pm to grind, slapped with a long wait for NL and an unappealing table, I said screw it and posted my name on the PLO list, after 30m a seat in the 5/10 PLO streets opened up... alright just two bullets. I’m not drawing dead but I’m lucky to be 0EV in any reasonable PLO tables.

Fortunately, the Seven Mile PLO table is not full of crushers and sickos. Instead, most of the players vary between “tight/face-up”, “solid, just stay out of his way”, a splashy player (occasionally the role reprised by myself, albeit at somewhere between 50-100bb unless I’m nailing draws well (the skill is determining run it once or twice imo) or getting hit by the deck preflop) and “Cosmo. We really see Cosmo play tonight, and we’re impressed.”



5/10 PLO: In for $1000, out for $5070
No PLO strat here other than that I went into the session thinking about JNandez’ most recent video regarding “donk” leading into PFR at a small frequency in seemingly standard pots, often with 2p / 1p+gutter &/or flush draw hands. Did not get to utilize it. I made the nuts once and got nearly the max, hit the nuts against Cosmo who snapfolded (side note about Cosmo at seven mile: dude is probably the best PLO player I’ve played against, seems super confident in his game and probably his life. Dude lives in san diego and is the best player in the biggest game at the casino with the sexiest view in the U.S.A, +ev to the max) and hit a draw in a 3bet 4way pot. Also I get the max against Koby, who I continue to run well against at the right times. PLO when you’re on the right side of everything and getting a massage while the sunsets is Easy game.



Pocketed $2000 took my $3000 to the NLHE game when I noticed it playing four-handed. Had to pick some off the table because Seven Mile’s 5/10 NL is capped at $3000. Lineup: Justin ($3000 eff) (pro, cool dude) on my right (intentional; no seat between Justin and action player, I don’t want to be to Justin’s right as he has made life hell for me with past preflop aggression, relentless three-bets followed by seemingly balanced postflop ranges), two short stacked grinders on my left, and a man identified as Asian Ricky with a tower of black between the grinders and Justin.

Justin, Asian Ricky, and I eventually shed the grinders as begin playing 3-handed. We also change the game to a $10/20: the biggest game of my life. Effective stacks by this point are: Justin $4000, me $4500, Asian Ricky $5000+ when this hand plays out:

BU vs BB, Justin in BB. $10/20; 4000 effective.
XXrevealed in next postXX OTB i raise $50, Justin 3! to $170, I call.
K99dcs Justin leads $150 I call.
8c bringing bdfd Justin leads $420 I raise to $1000
Jh Justin checks, I ship $2750, he tanks for ten minutes. At some point he asks if I’m a sicko who has bluffs there to the air. I want to tell him so badly that I do, but I let the idea of giving off live tells / false tells pass. I am so waiting to flip over the complete bonfire I set on fire with my money pre/otf when he sighs and reaches towards chips. He meekly slides a single yellow $10 into the middle.
“You got it?”
I flip over the Qd first...

Some pics of the first month in San Diego, at my father’s and his father’s favorite Jewish deli in La Jolla, slammin a brewski at a doggy beach with my girlfriend, an Australian Wagyu NYStrip adorned with grilled garlic prawns with lobster mac and cheese and a monster baked potato at Island Prime, and chip porn of zero losing days / only one losing session of fourteen at Seven Mile to this point. Not chronological:






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I respond. “No.”
Justin exhales.
I leave the 8d face-down as Justin, contortion and pain rapidly evaporating as relief pours over, rolls over the AKss quickly. I think about how AKcc, maybe even AKo with one club folds there. He later confirms he’s folding with a club, thus blocking Ac bluffhands from my range and weighting me too value heavy. I also agreed I’m bluffing way too much OTT possibly OTR if I do with Q8dd as well.

The $8000 pot is pushed his way - still my biggest ever NLHE pot.

1:30am. It’s late but I reload with two overstuffed oranges pulled from my breast pocket. $2500, back into the game. I grinded up to $3500 through a game dynamic where I’d play many pots in BU vs SB action player and Justin would have to call pre wide due to the price of such a wide SB cold call range / super narrow 3! range and fold to lots of flop cbets, or action player limps BU and Justin has to overlimp wife or play few SRPs with action player who will call my 3! at random allowing me to get out of line with 3! while checking and realizing lots of equity in limped/completed pots. This also occurred as the night winded down around 5:30a. What happened in between caused this...






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sub'd - enjoying the stories so far man

...and this. What can only be identified as a loose and friendly game broke out as a man identified as a relative of Deontae Wilder, Heavyweight Champion of the World. He has a sick i9 with butterfly doors and loves to see flops and turns, and as someone who also loves to see flops and turns, we VPIPed something like Bon 90%/15%, me 40%/25% (opening all buttons over Bon’s UTG limp, flatting >50%BBs over Asian Ricky limp, Justin BU raise, Bon limp, I call knowing Ricky calls.

We make hands just often enough to give great action and find lots of odd two pairs and big draws, allowing us to bet aggressively and find river folds. Had it every time for the most part against Ricky, he was also card dead and probably wanted to go play Baccarat before Bon showed up. Got to show just enough bluffs against Bon to get him to tankcall it off for $1K when I had 54s on J5533 board when he had AJ, and at one funny point he folded to my $400 flop raise into pot of $320 with JTo face up AFTER i showed JTcc: AcJx8c board. Also we had a river pot of $500, he checked on AKQJT with three hearts, I jammed $800eff more and rolled over the Ah. He tank folded, I showed the Td.

Found another couple hands before three of us flipped for Bon’s last $500 he wanted to spend before hitting the blackjack tables. I had two pair but Justin turned a straight to scoop the $1500 flip.

We agreed to one more hour of play three-handed, I picked up KK twice and AQ, AA once getting zero preflop action all four times. TT i got two streets from against Justin on JJ8xx board, and I made some razor thin value bets all night / light calls of his bluffs before he owned me on this hand:
Asian Ricky limps BU, Justin limps SB, I raise to $100 from B.B. with A9ss, BU calls, SB calls.
KT8s flop checks through.
Badugi Q turn checks through.
A river Justin checks, I bet $170, he raises to $520, I take a minute and call. He rolls AT.

We chopped a ~$4k pot toward the end of the night both showing up with AQ when he 3! my BU raise, then triple barreled on a Q943Q bdfd bricked board, but he overpotted $1400 into like $1000 river which made me pause a sec before calling.

+$6500 profit in a 14-hour session.



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in for the stories, best of luck. You say you play often @ Seven Mile. How often does 5/T run there, and in general what games run there on an average day? How is the rake, also if you don't mind.

Good read so far. Good luck man!

I only really play 5/T now. Rake is $1 preflop, ranging between an extra $1-5 for seeing a flop. Any flop at a 7+handed game incurs a $6 rake, so they’re taking a LOT off the table in nittier games (imagine the ppl trying to play 3/6 limit with that rake.)

Games run pmuch 7 days per week, both 5/10 NL and PLO but def. not 24 hours and never more than one of each. Games start around 3pm and break around 1am unless there are a couple players giving action and trying to keep game alive.

Rest of tables devoted to 2/3nl, some low limit hold me and low fixed limit hi/lo.



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enjoyed reading and looking fwd to more, gl this yr OP

Cool thread man defs enjoyed reading so far. Where about a in SD are you staying and how expensive is it? Are you ubering for the most part or do you have a car?

Live in La Mesa. Company pays for my airbnb and rental car wherever I get stationed. My job certainly comes first above all else, but there’s so much downtime in the winter schedule that I have the ability to play 3-4 sessions per week, take a day or two off to relax, and I teach the other two days.




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Some pictures of my favorite things from my time in Michigan:


The Fowling Warehouse. College buddy came up from Cincinnati so I got a decent group together for some football throwing competition. I was actually awful at first but it was a super fun thing to do. Lots of alcohol and beer options.



Prized exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Art



Flaming rum punch bowl at The Sugar House. Fabulous craft cocktail bar next to Slow’s BBQ. Super easy combo for the best dinner/after dinner choices in the city. Douse your cornbread in the apple bbq sauce, stay for the mac and the brisket, and get the Pink Lady after dinner.



Girlfriend’s cat



Student and her boyfriend’s cat




MGM PLO: In for $500 out for $1700, had a $4k pot I was freerolling with nut straight + middle set vs. nut straight no redraws. Turn and river brick.






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Nice reports so far! Keep them up!

Not a great photo but one of the better cheesecakes I’ve had; Seven Mile has a bananas foster cheesecake that I picked up while waiting for a seat to open up.

Waiting now for 5/10 NL or PLO, whichever opens first.


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Last couple of sessions have owned the hell out of me. $10,000 downswing. Bloodbath below:

$5/10
$5/10/20 PLO (mandatory straddle)
$20/40/80 O8 (fixed limit, mandatory kill)

Got dumptrucked playing the Omaha games with a splashy group of drinking regs on Friday and Saturday night. The smell of tequila hung in the air like gasoline on hot asphalt and I ran card DEAD.

6654ds on the button, $3k effective:
MP raises to $60, I call, BB calls.
T65cc flop. I have bdfd and middle set, BB checks, MP pots, I repot, BB jams, MP calls, I call. TT vs 66 vs wrap. I don’t improve on my one outer.

JJ in SB. MP raise to $50, BTN calls, I 3! to $230, MP calls, BTN folds. History with MP; he stacks off light and raises any draws. Slow plays nutted hands. $1300 effective.
765ss flop. I bet $300, MP jams for $1k more. I snap, he rolls QJss and turns a spade.

AAKTds in PLO, $1500 effective.
UTG raise to $80, four callers, I 3! on the button to $400, UTG calls, one caller between.
987r flop. UTG pots, MP repots, I fold.

AK23hh in O8. I don’t remember too much about the betting except I lost with the wheel against a better straight for the high on AK345 board with Kh 3h on the flop and got quartered in like a $2k pot where I x/called a single river bet after we got a ton in on the flop and turn.

Lost like 5 flips for $1K each in PLO where I’d get it in with two pair + NFD on the flop vs bottom set, or wrap + middle fd vs two pair, etc.

Going back to NL for the next two weeks to fix this downswing by playing my A game. Just need a couple winning sessions to get confidence back.



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Back in the NL 5/10 all day today. In for $5400 including a couple reloads after standard spots just broke the wrong way for me (4bet with AK, called multiway, flop JT7ss. Cold call super tight SB 3bet of MP with AKo, fold MW flop of QT8 and lose minimum vs. SB’s KK).

Start to grind back up from final $2k I brought with me, pick up 99 in BB.

$1500 effective with UTG. Read: this guy has raised flop against me in position twice huge and forced me to fold lots of difficult to realize equity. I am confident he goes nuts on small sizings.

UTG limp, MP limp. BTN raise to $50, I 3! to $200. UTG call, MP call.
Flop 963hh. I lead for $160, UTG raises to $400, MP fold, I jam, UTG tank calls. Flush comes in and he mucks anyway. Later claims KK.

Then around $5k, I played 3-handed with a couple of young (both younger than me! and i’m 22) pros, both sickos in different ways. I 3! then bet/bet/bet/folded to river shove with KK on 886QQ board. I show a lot of my hands, bluffs and value, so I believe him when he claims he had 75 about an hour later. If he had like a sick, too-thin 98 or a monster like aq or something i’m cool with that too, I just don’t think I can call KK there. Even AA a better call than KK all else equal - Id rather block A8/AQ than k8/kq given pre & flop action.

Other pro dumped a ton off to me when I had K5cc on the button against his SB 3! I make it $30, he 3! to $130, I call.

Board runs out 47J98 with three clubs, two on flop.
Flop: I call SB cbet of ~$130
Turn: SB continues $220, I raise to $620, SB calls.
River: SB checks, I bet the flush for $800, he... raises to $2400? I’m too surprised to consider raising but I have the Kc and even 5c blocking the straight flush so I have to call. SB shows TT with Tc, trying to go razor thin for value. I don’t dislike it, especially because I can value bet river with a set.

Got big hands in other big spots, even when they folded. Did butcher a hand 4! bluffing with A8ss and ran into what I think was KK on T73K board but I didn’t compound preflop with bluffs postflop.

Mostly happy with adjustments I made tonight with respect to river sizing, finding a certain line with high % of pot on river elicited a healthy amount of folds. Also got good thin value spots again, don’t recall really value owning myself ever and made lots of correct calls / A high floats / even K high flop floats in close spots.

In for $5400 out for $9970


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$5/10 NL, then $5/10/20 mandatory 3rd blind short handed PLO.
In for $2000 out for $12210, marking a +$10K session despite only playing for ~4 hours. That’s running good.

Aside before hhs: the Seven Mile chips are putrid, hideous, disgusting. Nothing other than the raspberry cheesecake $2 chips look pretty, although the blacks and reds are fine. First time coloring up to a “flag” here, note the quote marks, because it is:
[ ] Red
[ ] White
[ ] Blue

97ss in SB. Over two limps and raise to $30, CO three bets to $100. Seems extremely tight and giving off lots of strength. $2200ish effective, I find a cold call in SB. Both limpers and CO call.
Q74s flop, I x/c CO cbet of $250.
7h turn, I x/jam CO cbet of $600, ripping in his last $1500 or so. He calls quickly with what must’ve been AA/KK as river brings J.

I stack someone else with a squeeze with A2 after an EP open to $40 and five callers, I make it $230 from the BB. EP calls, SB calls.
652 flop checks to EP who bets $100, I call.
2 turn I x/c, and I x/c river jam to scoop $1000 more.

Tilted action player comes in with fistful of blacks (possibly from table games?) and triple barrel bluffs when I x/c three streets with A6 on 532Ax board, river culminating in his $600 rip into $500.

Next hand: He rebuys for $1200ish, I stack him again with A6, this time in A3265 board where I x/j river and he snaps with A5.

An orbit later, I get K9cc in the BB. UTG raise to $30, five callers, I call.
QJTone club, two spade flop. I check, UTG bets $250, I jam $1k, he calls with 97ss and bricks.

Dump back $500 to a shortstack in straddled pot when I get AKdd in MP, two limps, I bump to $110, CO 3! to $250, folds to me, I jam his remaining $250, he has QQ with Qs. Board runs out Kxxxx with two flopped, turn, and river spades and he takes this one.

End NL with a good combination of thin value and heavy aggression as I start to notice spots where many of the 5/10 bad regs hard cap their ranges / never have creative hands / always make 0-equity bluffs. Grind stack from $2k to $9700 or so before game breaks.

New game is 5/10/20 PLO, three blinds. I run well in big pots, make the right calls, and extract value from all value spots before winning a flip for $550 or so as game broke.
Only one $5/10+ game left, the other PLO game, and I decide to rack up and call it quits. Surprised not to get consistent NL action beyond 10pm here in San Diego.

January run God continues

Wednesday night, into $5/10 NL for $2100 and out for $2700.

Played three hands in an hour; got value from one woman on JT7T3 no fd when I bombed river with QT/she held AJ. This was after I four bet her with T9s and showed after she folded to my flop cbet.

Later dump some back in 4! pot with AQo where I had position on the 4 bettor, Justin, after he raised my UTG raise / two callers / BTN squeeze / BB 4! I flat, then woman on button flats as well. I call her small bet on KJ6 bdfd after Justin does as well, then fold unimproved turn to her shove.

Called into the big game: $10/20 PLO with a good amount of action, some bad regs (myself certainly included), and a few pros. I dump off $7700 in four hours, losing or chopping every single major pot.

50/50s, 60/40s, even 75/25s, I would chop at best and get scooped at worst. Nutted hands didn’t get paid on river and nutted flop/turns got owned by board pairings and river bombs. I don’t play tight, either, so it was a swingy night.
Got a couple four bet bluffs through with Axxx with some suitedness and connectedness (eg A876 with A7s).

After I got down to my last bullet, in for the full $7700 and $2k left in front of me, I ran it back to a few thousand when I pick up a double suited hand and I know confidently my opponent has xxAA after he gave off every live tell for interest and strength in the span of 5 seconds. This is his first 3! all night, a relatively small one. I call in position as do two others.


We get it in on the flop and run it twice. Big enough pot to get me unstuck for the night and maybe up a little bit. I have every pair, trips, flush draw. The first board...


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Bricks the **** out. As does the second board. Felted by the guy I’m supposed to get it in good against, and I tilt shove off the rest with AQ98ds with a cold 4bet facing bad aces the next hand. That board bricks too and I go home, $0 left.

I come back the next day after class locked and reloaded for my A game, planning to play solid NL.

Best plans go awry ofc, and I break even playing NL before the table breaks after about an hour. Forced to sit 5/10 PLO in an extremely unappealing lineup where I’m definitely the spot (lol), I break even again before the table is ready to break...
then I raise turn/rip river with a missed wrap and dump off a couple thousand to Dan, the WSOP bracelet holding ex-Starcraft pro. PLO breaks right after that hand and Dan, Justin, and I go back to $5/10 NL.

In for $4000 total from first NL session and PLO.
$2700 left when we get to NL, eventually I reload for $2000 more.

First couple orbits, I rip a missed flush draw all in on river for 80bb and the tight reg calls with trips top kicker (obv. a call, but he tanked like >5m so I guess I could’ve got him off a lot of stuff there.)

Then I 3! the same guy’s open with J9ss in SB, Dan 4! me, I fold... he shows T4o. Dan, Justin, and I are all sitting $4k+ deep. We get three handed and push the game up to a $10/20.

That’s where the fun begins...



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$20/40 NL in for $4700 out for $12641

Dan leaves after about a half hour agreeing to 4a end time, but not before I show down a T4o bluff against him next. No ****, either the next or second hand after that he shows down a T4o bluff.
The very next hand, he shows down ANOTHER T4o bluff. It was like we were getting cold decked and he had aces up his sleeve, but actually T4o (basically aces in this game tho). So sick, he might’ve made him opening T4o over millions of hands lifetime +BB from those three hands alone. Picked him off on another bluff, he picked me off on more than a couple bluffs, and he owned the **** out of me with 2p when I had TP on a 4 straight board (J9784 or something) by betting river healthy sizing and getting value. But I’m a station anyway. All worth it for his story about getting slow rolled by the President of Mongolia. He left though, leaving Justin and I to play HU. But.. $20/40 HU.

Kinda owned Justin heads up tonight, not because I’m a better player but rather I got hit by the deck early and that pushed him off his A game. I also got to show lots of bluffs he’d folded to and he had strong hands when I had stronger ones. Highlights include him getting coolered when he has QQ and I have 55 on 775xx and I get the max, I make trips at the right time, and I stacked him some other way I can’t remember (typing at 6:40am after finishing the session at 6am..)

He gets a bit of it back toward the end though. We’ve played long past the agreed upon end time because I know he wants to get some back when he’s stuck, just as I would want the same. We battle onwards.

Then, I pick up QQ in the big blind and 3! pre, he calls in position.
$20/40 HU NL:
Justin raises button to $120, I three bet to $330, he calls.
J65dd flop, I have Qd. I bet $560, he calls.
Ks turn, I ship $2400 effective. He tanks. I roll over the Qd while he’s in the tank and try to **** with him a bit to induce a call. I thought he had like J2 or some **** here but eventually he finds the call with... Qc 6c.
The river is the 6s and I get two-outered for a rather sizable pot and Justin’s last bullet. I wanted to bury him to end the match and ended up talking him into a call that he would get lucky on. Deservedly so, given how many hands I made tonight, but damn if it still would’ve been nicer heading home $10+k richer.. because:

A few hands later, we agree another end time. Our last substantial hand is below.

$20/40 HU NL:
I raise button to $100, Justin 3! to $360, I call. I have QJdd
Flop: J94 one diamond. He bets $330(ish?) I call.
Turn: 7 bdfd, not diamonds. He bets $1100, I call.
River: Qs no flush. He thinks, and thinks for a few seconds. I can’t ****ing wait for him to bet. He has a million bluffs that barrel off here, some monkey **** like AQ and 97ss that value owns himself, and virtually no value outside of the two specific hands I block, QQ/JJ. And god help him if he checks, because he won’t get the opportunity to check/raise. I’m going to shove this hand down his throat if he checks to me, then he has KK here 100% and sad boy bluffs that just didn’t have heart left this late in the night I will **** him up, I’m thinking.

Then he bets $2950 putting himself all in. “Ten King? Ten eight?” I hear myself thinking that, but confidently snapping my oranges in. He rolls T8dd and wrecks me. Even on his B/C game during most of heads up, Justin finds a hand that stings.


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$5/10 NL in for $10000 out for $0.

$3k effective.
99 in the CO. No 9h. Dan raises to $60 MP over two limpers, I raise to $190, Dan 3! to $730, I call.
Q84 flop two hearts. Dan $720, I call.
Qh turn. Dan checks, I rip in $1760 (the rest of his stack) and he tank calls with.. AK no heart.
Kh river and I get dicked HARD by the deck.

AKo vs QQ all in pre vs Jeff for $3800 effective in straddled pot. I had AKo in the straddle and 3!, he 4!, I 5! jam. Brick board.

77 all in pre vs Tony for $1200. He rolls AK and hits Ace on river. I go home.

$5/10 NL in for $6000

Bataan Death March continues on Saturday as I continue to run like the bubonic plague. Tilt a guy by three betting all of his opens and calling river with 4th pair to catch his full of **** line, and he rebuys. Then we get AKss all in pre vs his Q5 for $1700, he binks a 5 in the turn.

Same villain from last hand and I’ll admit I was tilted as **** by this point from the last couple days.

AA in MP, straddle on. I raise to $80, BB calls, BTN straddle calls.
732 flop. I lead $210, BTN jams $3.5k effective. I call. He has 22 and rivers quads for good measure.

Taking tomorrow off.


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Super Bowl Sunday a wild success for me, as I got high and watched a fabulous football game with bread sticks and pizza without having oversized groups of college kids cramped around the room TV mashing down on various wings and dips. While high I had a thought that you can remember your life through where you were when certain annual events occurred... Try to think about how you’ve watched various SBs in years past... Mine:

Senior Year: see above, local Pats win, rowdy.

Junior Year: watched on bus on way back from debate tournament off Freshman kid’s phone. He was a loud Broncos fan with a whiny voice. He was also the only Broncos fan. Not a good bus ride as far as the mock trial went, either. Took a photo out the window of melting NE snow on the window that later made the cover of a poetry chapbook I wrote. Sad time. Not sure if ironically hilarious or just even sadder time now.

Sophomore Year: Another Pats win. Incredible cheer from common room of dorm, tens of fellas screaming. Boston College Campus roared. I lay in bed, alone in the dark, flu-ridden and snuggling what the small TV’s blue light would indicate was a mock trial trophy. Better weekend. Woke up next day and heard reenactments of the pick and debating in hallways / classrooms to piece together what occurred. Confirmed by bringing lunch to room, watching 12pm Sportscenter before volunteer work at local school. Not humble, straight bragging.

Freshman Year: same number of fellas cramped together watching in room 20x smaller than senior year room. same amount of food and spills, too. fewer girls.

And so on...

Also won $3700 in BTC peeling that sick Over 60.5... I just wanted action. Good friend / fellow degen talked me down the day of the game from parlaying Over 60.5 with Pats -7.5. Thank the god of fat stacks he did.

Watched Borat rerun in his honor (must’ve been the kid’s favorite movie, he viewed over and over and over again 3 straight days last year).

To sum up... very nice.


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WEW LAD.



Hot hot hot graphs. You can see it all: the initial toe-dipping into San Diego $5/$10NL. No PLO. I book small wins consistently, content with my tough spots occurring in $700 pots.

Then a session where I hit semi-bluffs. I call an old man’s reraise because he’s 200bb deep instead of his usual 75, who knows how, and only two people and myself have picked up on it. And he might as well have flipped QQ+ face up, and I have 54s that sees an 876 flop to get the max. I win a lot.

The next couple sessions I win a lot more. Then I want bigger wins, I sit in on PLO. This turns my big NL wins into medium wins, my medium NL wins into break even sessions, but one day...PLO is huge and NL is even bigger. I win at both, despite bluffing $4k away to Justin.

I chase that rush, PLO and NL both, again the next night. My friend from back home books $1000: 1/7th my action.. and I win $7.5k that night for a nice win for the both of us. I’m up $20k for the month. I dump back $10k the next weekend playing PLO then Fixed Limit Omaha 8. What a nightmare. The next week I wake up resolved never to play PLO again. I book a $10k NL win. I play PLO that weekend. I lose. I play NL and run even worse than I could’ve imagined; NL was my fallback game? My A game would just print money? How could I get 2-outered, then 6-outered, then lose AK vs QQ, other flips, AK vs Q5, AA vs 22? I dumped almost all of my January back despite running well in the biggest games (10/20, 10/20/40, 20/40 for that brief heads up win..)

And tonight, 10/20, playing half as a 10/20/40, four-handed. I’m in the game for $4000, with $4k left of my SD profits. I decide right then that I’m not touching the second bullet so I can walk away from this town a slight winner. I’m down to $700. Not gonna touch that second bullet, even slightly because I know I’ll buy in deep. I just want to get it in as a small dog and try to flip the $700 up. I do, then get good value on some hands between 150-250bb deep ($2500 at 5/10 is where I start to feel I can go to work in some trickier spots, especially against players who aren’t used to playing deep. I get three streets including overbet on river with A3s on monotone nut flop.

I pick off some bluffs, get bluffed, do my own bluffing, and without many showdowns except when isoing player 8, chip back up to $5000. Triple barrel including overbets with T4o to try to show monster bluff respect that T4o has Justin & Dan. Get T4o through, although river was a 4 and opponent claims naked Ad on three diamond board. Then Oregon Chris stacks Dan and player 8 with KK vs AK vs AJo in an ~$8k pot. Chris was never folding but Dan’s line did look super strong having 3!, then 5! ripping after Chris 4! squeezed Dan / player in seat 8. They both leave, table dynamic changes radically as we move to $10/20 with myself, Justin, Chris, and Troy.

Roller coaster of hands culminating with me getting owned when Justin checks trips three streets and I get x/r valuebetting TTK7Q with AQ. I call it off of course. Then I call three streets in 3! pot with AJ on A4xxx board where Troy has 44. Justin gets stacked by Chris running a monster $4k+ bluff... that gets a TON of folds... except Chris slowplayed AA on 59QA6 board (FD bricks but check/called flop, turn, and check/let Justin jam 76s on river).

Then I get A8 BB vs Straddle with Troy.
$10/20/40, $3000ish effective

I raise to $120, he makes it $330, I make it $760, he calls.
K87 flop. Flush draw. I check, he checks.
6 turn. Flush hits. I bet $540, he calls.
8o river. I jam, he asks “was that an all in?” Oh ****. I confirm. He snaps.
I roll over what I considered 20 seconds ago to be the nuts. He’s faster, of course, to table KK.

Owned me preflop by flatting after he bluffed me in a big spot way earlier in the night and showed the heist. The pros out here in my favorite city in the continental 48... they’re some sick ****ers. The bad regs are bad, the action players are funny in reasonable doses, the food’s okay / comps are generous, the games can play big, the view is the best.

My favorite shot from my second favorite poker room in the country, only behind the Encore (formerly at the Wynn) in Las Vegas.

Mardi Gras 2018. Cool trip, lots of good vibes in the city and also Gretna, LA - the location of the airbnb. Initial plan was to meet up with my college buddy and a couple girls from Detroit but work stole him away last minute, leaving me alone with my girlfriend and her friend for the weekend. We’d make that work but I can see this place being way more exciting with more people to get into bigger hijinks. See below.



Overall fun experience though. Didn’t have enough time / didn’t want to neglect the girls so I couldn’t bring a clip for Harrah’s poker room. Regretted that HARD when I drunkenly checked Bravo at 5am to see 5/10 still running - god what a mess that game must have been. If I ever come back and do this again I’ll come strapped for sure.

Thursday: got in, went to Gattuso’s for happy hour drinks and poboys. Got the half and half - fried shrimp / fried oyster. Liked the shrimp bits better, the bread was incredible though. Few cocktails deep by the end of the meal, thought I felt a bug when we went to pose for the photo...


Thursday night: Bourbon Street. French Quarter. Photos tell this story (Snapchat captions usually not mine):





At some point went to Cafe du Monde to try their famous beignets. Frankly just a better version of fried dough, not too special. Could use some caramel or chocolate dipping sauce.


Huge pro of having girlfriend’s friend here: getting to see guys come up and run game on her while my girlfriend and I could chill back and giggle like.. well, like drunk twenty-two year olds.

Thursday night turned into Friday morning sneakily; time bent in funny ways here. Hopping between two clubs or bars could take an hour with all the stuff to do and see on the street, I’d bump into people from 6 hours ago and it felt like we were just on a balcony together, and four hours of sleep felt like ten.

Admittedly not in prime form as my body feels like it has aged ten years since college. I’ve gained weight, joints creak, and I get hard hangovers. Needed to resort to the old boot&rally for Friday’s activities...





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