Made a baby FT today on Party, entered F2T one of the chip leaders before going card dead again (is it just me or am I full of excuses ). Made F2T of the $16.50 Big Fish on 888 as well with over $5k CAD up top before I ran AQs into AK Mix in another F3T in a $16.50 Party bounty and I ended up winning about $300ish on the day. It's nice to win some dough but omfg I was circling some serious scores all day and I just couldn't nail it. Variance variance please come my way

Even though I haven't won a lot of money I'm pretty f'ing happy with how I've been playing. I'm racking up multiple F3Ts or better seemingly every day which I think is a great sign of where my game is at. I'm still looking forward to get in the lab and really work on improving rather than just coasting at my current level. I think one of the biggest adjustments I've made in the last few sessions was open raising tighter and also rejamming over limps tighter. In the limp situation I always think that the opponent is weak and that ripping in 15bb with A5s is +EV. The thing I forget is that usually those people limp their whole range, with every Ax that they are never folding to a 15bb rejam in a million years. I think this adjustment has led to a little more staying power for me in tournaments and hopefully will help me lock up some serious cash soon.

I've been having trouble in the lottery Stars tournaments where the fields are thousands of people deep but have been having consistently solid results in sub-1000 fields. I think that's where I want to devote a lot of my volume going forward. I'm already playing more on Party than Stars and playing a lot of smaller tournaments I blew off in the past because top prize wasn't big enough. That being said playing bigger buy-in/smaller field events, where my ROI might be lower/I can't bink $5k, will still lead me to good results because variance isn't as crazy and I can consistently make solid runs. In Stars tournaments you can just forget about it. You have to run hot af for 8 hours just to make a ****ing FT there hahahaha, I'm trying but no luck yet

Tried to contact 888 and their online support page was down hahahahah. Finally got something sent to them today so hopefully I'll hear back soon. Says they might have a delay because of covid but hopefully I can get some tourney tickets or something for my troubles

For sure taking tomorrow off and then we'll see what this week holds. I still need to put summer tires on my car. I've been so busy the last month that I haven't been able to make/commit to an appointment. Also still need to talk to my doctor about tapering myself off of my meds. Honestly it's the little errands like this that I have the most trouble with. I just need to get it out of the way but if there's no feeling of immediate urgency I usually just spend my time doing other stuff. So I need to get that **** sorted tomorrow and make some appointments asap

Not much of a TV/basketball guy but I started watching The Last Dance on Netflix and it's pretty hype. Guess I'll go rip an episode before bed. The site that I wrote my Parasite review for (The Feedback Society) put out an open call for submissions so I might try writing some stuff for them in the coming weeks just to help pass the time. I think the site is pretty inconsequential but I don't really have anything to lose. I can call myself a film critic on my resume now haha. Was going to write a piece on how amazing the library is right before covid hit and shut all of the branches down. Seems to me like now is a good time to write up a love letter to the library (PLEASE COME BACK SOON )


Depression is a real B that's for sure. Never heard of TMS before but it looks pretty intensive, hopefully it will help you out! I'm lucky that I seem to have found something that worked with the therapist I had the past year. It all depends on the therapist though because she was the fourth person I've seen and the only one that helped me make serious progress. Different storkes for different folks though, hope you can find something GTO for you. Glgl dude

The complaints worked!!! Took a few back and forths to get them to understand what happened (even tho everything was in my first message) but they hooked me up with $50 USD as “an act of goodwill.” Truth be told I was probably going to bust right away anyways but you never know with tourneys, could’ve ended up binking $2k. I’m willing to forgive and forget anyways. God bless 888 for hooking me up and also shoutout to PartyPoker for also hooking me up from the disconnection a few weeks ago. I love both of them v much

In the process of getting my tires changed, opting to stand outside rather than sit in the cluster**** inside of the store. Trying my best to set up a doctor appointment but I might have to wait till I’m back home to book online, looks like next Tuesday might be the earliest I can get in. Also shot off a text to my Stoon golfing bud saying I’d be down to play a few rounds this year and he said he’d keep me in mind. Cranked out a full seven hour shift despite running out of stuff after four and talked my way out of my shift tomorrow so I am getting a full day of Tuesday MTTs coming up Finally I squeezed in a workout between my shift and my tire appointment so I have accomplished pretty much everything I needed to do. Gotta say, today was very GTO

LAST THING!!! I’ve decided I’d really like to play the WPT #56 - $55 Mini Closer $200k GTD PKO on Party this Sunday! PKO on Party which should be only 5% rake (I think) plus probably a super super soft field. I’ve been playing well even if the results haven’t been there. $55 is a little out of my comfort zone though so I was wanting to sell 40% of my action. If anyone is interested and wants to flick over $22 I’ll play for sure this Sunday. If not I’ll probably just fire a few bullets in satellites and hope to get lucky. Hit me up if you want a little sweat

Today was **** from start to finish. The day began pretty promising with some deep runs in small field tourneys but I ended up busting both of them F2T before the money became noteworthy. Other than that it was a bunch of min cashes and just struggling to get anything going anywhere. I did make one baby FT shown above but I got in with a sub-10bb stack as I went card dead around F3T (shocker ). I was able to double up and get closer to everyone else at the back of the pack before I rejammed my AQs into an AK early position open raiser. I think that maybe ICM would say I should have not done that? Maybe I could have flatted and folded to later action but I was still bottom of the barrel and AQs might've been the bottom of my profitable rejam range with 15bb. Whatever

Probably back at it tomorrow. Wish I could have won some money today but it wasn't meant to be. See ya

Okay, now on the one hand I won like $750 CAD today. And I ran HOT AS **** for the first few hours. Like, I think I played my worst poker today by far but I was dealing out the bad beats left and right while I cashed in most of my bigger tourneys. AND I final tabled a $16.50 and locked up some nice pocket change.

But on the other hand... WHERE WERE THE CARDS??? OH MY ****ING GOD when I got to F3T I was instantly the bottom third of the field and I ****ing stayed there until my very last hand. I think my stack reached 15bb at the start of the FT but other than that one hand I probably fluctuated between 5-10bb the entire final table. Just... I couldn't get aces? I couldn't get broadways? Hell, I would have taken pocket sixes, my ****ing namesake. Oh my god.

I won a lot of money today. I did very well. I've vindicated myself to some degree. But boy oh boy, I just couldn't bink a massive score, eh?

The runs are there. The game is there. I'm really confident I can make a ton of money and am looking forward to next week when I can take some time off to study in-depth. But for now...

You know what, I probably cracked aces three times just to cash the Big Fish. VARIANCE. THANK YOU. PLEASE STAY WITH ME

Scheduled for two eight hour shifts so it's unlikely I'll end up playing either day. For sure back Saturday, maybe Friday if I get off early. Remember the new girl I bitched about being lazy a few weeks back? Her last day is tomorrow, she's moving to Vancouver. I don't know what that means for my department/hours but probably won't be getting less hours anytime soon. A good problem to have in times of covid I guess. SEE YA

Lost a few bucks today on Party and 888 but I won on Stars for the second session in a row. Is my stars luck turning around???

Overall the day was pretty lackluster. I got off work at 11 and busted out a 40 MTT session. It wasn't too bad because I was able to cash a decent percentage of my $22 MTTs today. That being said I accidentally registered for a $22 satellite into the $215 Phase Tourney on Party. I was freaking out because I thought that tourney would probably run into Monday but I think it wraps on Sunday so I was in the zone and ready to crush. My satellite ran for two hours but I only lasted an hour and a half. No Phase 2 glory for me

Back at it tomorrow. My last two sessions have been pretty weak as far as how I feel about my overall game. I'm just gonna push through the next two days and then I can decompress. Who knows, maybe I'll even take a weekend off. It's hard to believe I was sitting on my ass doing nothing whenever I wasn't at work for a year straight. Had no idea I was capable of this much concentrated effort but hopefully it bodes well for future poker/life success. Tapering off my antidepressants now as well, beginning to go once every two days until my prescription runs out. Hopefully I can keep crushing life once I'm au naturel again. See ya

Today started off very rough, both playing horrible and running bad for the first few hours of my session. However I made a $16.50 FT, made F2T of a Party $11 Bounty, and had a few other respectable runs to win a few hundred on the day. Better than nothing!

On this FT I wasn't super short the whole time (thank God). Was nice to be a midstack with a little wiggle room. However, I ran into trouble with a pocket pair and I'm gonna run the ICM real quick to see if I made the right call. Villain had been jamming multiple times for 20bb+ so I thought their range wasn't necessarily super nutted, maybe big aces and worse pocket pairs. Here's the hand...


Pacific Poker - 6000/12000 Ante 1500 NL - Holdem - 5 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 4

SB: 12.27 BB
BB: 21.79 BB
UTG: 98.82 BB
Hero (CO): 18.99 BB
BTN: 21.05 BB

5 players post ante of 0.13 BB, SB posts SB 0.5 BB, BB posts BB 1 BB

Pre Flop: (pot: 2.12 BB) Hero has 9 9

fold, Hero raises to 2 BB, BTN raises to 20.93 BB and is all-in, fold, fold, Hero calls 16.86 BB and is all-in

Flop: (39.85 BB, 2 players) 5 A 3

Turn: (39.85 BB, 2 players) T

River: (39.85 BB, 2 players) 6

Hero shows 9 9 (One Pair, Nines)
(Pre 55%, Flop 10%, Turn 5%)
BTN shows A Q (One Pair, Aces)
(Pre 45%, Flop 90%, Turn 95%)
BTN wins 39.85 BB



So I open raised my 99 and snap called villain shove. I know that there was a significantly shorter stack on the table so that ICM pressure was likely huge. That being said, I figured 99 to be the bottom of my profitable call rejam range. Let's find out...

Here's the open raise range I gave myself.



Here's the villain rejam range I made. Like I said, they rejammed several times at the FT and F2T that made me think they weren't ICM aware and thus probably jamming too wide. So I gave villain a lot of pocket pairs, suited aces and the like, although the reality is that his range in-game was probably tighter than this.



And finally, my profitable call rejam range...



And ICM says I ****ed up, I ****ing knew it

As soon as villain shoved I recognized it was a close ICM spot. Like I said, I thought I would be on the profitable end of things but my call is clearly a burning money play. Like I said, the range could be even tighter so the calling range could be JJ+ in reality. I knew the ICM pressure was significant, just not THAT significant. *sigh*

Oh well. Live, learn, come back, and ****ing crush everyone next time. There's a lot of stuff I desperately need to work on as my game is clearly not operating at it's highest level at the moment. Today was still profitable so I'll take it and hopefully crush tomorrow.

In off the felt news I have my first golfing round booked with the Saskatoon geezers this upcoming Tuesday at Dakota Dunes. I am going to be so horrible so I might have to do a little warm-up chipping/putting in the basement before the round. I am historically terrible out of the gates. Not knowing how often I'll play this year so hopefully I can piece together a few respectable rounds haha. In preparation for end of the month I've been absolutely crushing it in the fitness department the last week+. I'm looking good to make my weight goal, gonna go bust out a workout before bed here.

GOOD LUCK TOMORROW EVERYONE!!!

Yeah I am instinctively shoving 99 in that spot ; 1010 would be the bottom of my raise-induce range (1010-AA with a few weak Ax and Kx bluffs that open-fold), but tbh, if you take all your range (minus AA) and just open-shove it with 19bbs, it spares you the sin of committing ICM suicide .

Interesting, makes sense. I almost never open jam for anything more than 16bb but final tables definitely change dynamics and I might have to look at whether that’s something I can incorporate into my late game play, thanks

The dynamic in live HS MTTs are different then online, I guess (I barely play online MTTs and only played a dozen of 100-1.5k BI last month...), but you do see lots of open-shoves of 20bbs +, especially when ICM becomes critical like on the bubble or close to a pay jump. Personally I prefer to restrain my open-shoves to smaller stacks from EP (like rarely above 16bbs) and keep my game tighter with a (somewhat) balanced range of open-folds/open-induces with a 20bbs+ stack, while splitting my range in late position (CO+) to open-shoves and to 2.2bbs with the same 20bbs+ stack sizes. I just find that you will get more people jam vs your 2bbs open from CO when you have a 22bbs stack, for example, thus making it more ICM savvy to you yourself steal the initiative away by jamming a wider range. This obviously fluctuates with table dynamics/different opponents styles. GL

edit : now that I think about it, there was a dynamic on the bubble (min-cash was 6kCAD$) where I found myself as a middling stack (20-35bbs) handcuffed in between big stacks (50-100bbs+) and shortstacks 5 off the bubble. So I found myself having to jam hands like AK in fear of opening to 2.5bbs/having to fold AK vs a big stack that would correctly 3bet me a sizing committing my stack. The only hands that I would induce would be KK-AA in this situation.

A nice score of $1.2k USD helped me avert total disaster today. I'm glad I was able to translate this run into a good finish because I had my C- game all day. I'm just absolutely fried. Not enough sleep I think, going hard af for a month+ will do that haha. I didn't have any other runs of note, losing a couple hundred across my tournaments other than this one. BUT the important thing is I made this one count, and it puts a bow on a very productive month.

All of that being said I'm pretty choked I didn't win the tourney today. I got a big stack around F3T and comfortably had 30+ bb the entire FT until heads up. Me and the other guy started even and ended up duking it out in a roughly hour long heads up. We were each like 50bb deep so plenty of room to play with.

As mentioned before, my BVB play is pretty weak which I think you can infer that my heads up game is also lacking. I've never had to duel that long before but I was able to hold my own, eventually getting my chip lead to 20mil/4mil at one point. His four million were 15bb at that point and his A5s held up against my QJ shove and then he slowly came back. Overall I was pretty card dead and the action was less than exciting, practically non-existent as we were limp folding A LOT. He got to be a slight chip lead when, surprise surprise, HE DISCONNECTED!!!

Yup, so there I was, faced with the ethical dilemma. Do I spam the raise button and get as many chips as I can? Or do I be a decent person and stall for him to come back. In the end I think maybe I was still on the slightly scummy end. When it was my turn to openraise I let my time bank run all the way down before raising and taking the pot. When he was SB I got the pot instantly. I think the truly gentleman way would have been for me to also sit out but that didn't occur to me in-game. Anyways, he was out for a few minutes but eventually reconnected. I had about a 60:40 edge at that point and the game was back on. Like I said, I didn't get great cards and just blinded down until SPR was pretty shallow and I bluffed my open ended straight draw into a made straight for the L.

So yeah. I tried to do the right thing. Maybe it was only because I wanted to tell you all just that. I know I still got an advantage out of the situation but I easily could have crippled or gotten him super short. I guess I can sleep at night, but on the other hand that extra $1k... Being a nice guy is for ****ing losers

This month long grind was completely unparalleled for me and I'm glad I was able to bank a couple grand. I'm going to hold off on my monthly recap until tomorrow when I weigh myself for start of June. I am so so tired but will probably get in a quick workout rn just to shave a few extra grams for tomorrow


Very interesting stuff. I both understand what you're saying and am so tired that my brain is barely functioning. I will def factor in these strats in the future

Congrats on the score/great month friend ; and even more congrats on the (very) ethical behaviour There is just no way I am not fully taken advantage of the situation and blinding him out I justify my behaviour by the fact that I lose approximately 5k a year in disconnections, WHEN ALSO FACTORING OPPONENTS DISCONNECTIONS It is my choice, I guess, as I choose to travel in very remote areas and find myself grinding on spotty 1Mbs connections , nonetheless, I believe that disconnections should be an EV that evens out in the end, me thinks... I am curious what a poll would say about how folks would behave in your HU situation...

Thanks Dub! How quickly I forget my own 888 disconnection the other week haha. I thought I’d be able to rest easy but as the hours go on I find myself feeling worse about the whole situation. Remember this post, this one heads up because I think that’s the last time I try being a gentleman hahaha. The disconnection EV argument is one I like and I think I might use it from now on the next time I find myself in such a $$$ situation

And June is here! The last month was absolutely amazing, the grind for me was so fun, rewarding, and challenging. Who knows, maybe poker as a career isn't dead yet. At the very least I've proven to myself that poker as a side grind is both viable and very, very, VERY profitable. As a quick recap, here were the goals I set myself for last month...

How did I do? Here are my numbers...

MAY MTT STATS

• MTTs Played: 1070
• Hours Played: 227.25
• Total Profit (CAD): $1226.60
• Total Profit (USD): $1638.40

So these are my best numbers in terms of pure volume BY FAR, even when I was playing full time. The biggest difference is that I both started registering earlier (6am on weekends as opposed to 9 or 10) and registered much later, almost always regging regular speed tournaments till 3ish and turbos until 4 or later. When I was full time poker I would often stop registering three or four hours into a day when I wasn't feeling it or would just stop early in the hopes of getting off to go hang with friends. Well guess who has no friends/social life now! A real boon for productivity, I gotta tell you. By my count I had nine final tables with one third, two runner-ups, and one victory That being said, I still think I ran pretty bad in big spots and/or made huge ICM mistakes. I finished at the back of a lot of FTs and fizzled out a lot in F2Ts and F3Ts. I don't think there was a lot separating me from winning anywhere from a couple hundred to a couple thousand more last month. It makes me all the more excited to keep refining my craft. I am hungry for more

Did I study those 5 hours a week? Definitely not. I only had eleven days off which I mostly used to unwind. Keep in mind that I played 227 hours while also working 30-37 hours a week for the past month. I was absolutely busting my ass hahaha. Hopefully I can get back in the lab with consistency in June

Finally, I weighed myself both before and after work today. I figured I'd use my post-work number because I'd be like half a pound lighter from walking but I guess I drank too much water, gained some extra decimal points haha. Anyways, my 6am weigh-in was 218 lbs on the number! I DID IT! The 220s can kiss my ass goodbye, hopefully forever If you want to know what I've done for fitness it's literally a) almost no junk food, b) walking at work, and c) Connor McDavid's quarantine workouts on his Twitter. I've been running purely on calisthenics and feeling good af. I struggle with proper pushups and can't make the 45 second wall sits all the way through but other than that I'm following the workouts to a tee. I feel good and I might be able to save money on a gym membership post-quarantine too

So what are the goals for this month? With no big tournament series running I won't be playing nearly as much, although I still want to grind. I made roughly $3.5k CAD or a little more than I'd make in two months at my job (raise and near full-time hours factored in lol ). Emphasis will be on improving more than anything. Without further ado...

GOALS FOR JUNE

• Play 500 MTTs
• Finish going through my cash game course
• Study 4+ hours a week when not playing
• Reach 210lbs by July

Ten pounds a month is about the height of my weightloss powers. Depending on how much I golf I could very easily clear this goal. I could be looking at a sub-200 number on the scale in T-minus two months possibly. However, starting at 274 I still have a lot of flab that I'm not sure will fully go away. Might need plastic surgery or some **** haha, although I'm also fine with not being a ****ing supermodel

The cash game course is self-explanatory. Coach gave it to me as payment for helping him with the 4bet jam calculator to use for my postflop game which is my biggest weakness by far. Getting back in the lab will hopefully keep me laddering.

Even though I started this poker comeback barely able to afford $11 stakes I now have 200+ buy-ins for the $22 level should I choose to pursue it. Those stakes are undoubtedly tougher and I have yet to FT but I've been having a lot of good results/runs and I'm pretty confident I'm a crusher. My BB/100 looks pretty solid anyways, easily clearing 10+. I will probably stick to only regular speed or turbo PKOs just to lower variance a bit. I also need a plan of how much I want in my BR vs in my liferoll. I want enough in the liferoll for bills/food/life that I don't need to worry about making ends meet should I hit a massive downswing. I might move $1k-$500 from my BR just for some extra padding to my account. I've paid most of big monthly expenses already with a paycheque coming on Thursday so I should be able to rest comfortably until I start making serious dough. The BR is honestly close to where it was in August 2018 at the peak of my full-time poker power. Not giving thousands to coaches is so +EV

I ain't doing nothing today. Movies, movies, movies Tomorrow I'm going golfing, hopefully it isn't too windy. My hair is getting seriously long during this coronavirus thing. I honestly don't even want to pay for a haircut, I just don't have a razor to buzz it all off. I think going short/buzzed would be GTO because I honestly think the hair contributed to my mental exhaustion yesterday. My grind station is on the top floor of our townhouse and it can get pretty fricken hot during the day. Maybe I'll still crank out a session in the middle of the week but I'm planning to go home this weekend so no serious grinds planned for now. In the meantime I can grind in the lab. That would be the GTO play for sure. See ya!

Was about to withdraw a couple grand from 888 for the liferoll/Stars balancing when I realized the $50 bonus I got for the disconnection last week is being held behind a rake payroll. Going through the conditions I think I need to generate $125 in rake or roughly $1.25k in tourney fees. Usually that would be no problem but I think that if I make a withdrawal before I generate the rake the bonus will immediately go up in flames. Talking to 888 for clarification. Kinda scummy, would definitely love to withdraw from 888 as opposed to Party since it's easier to deposit on 888. I'M GOOD FOR IT! We'll see, maybe they'll somehow relax the rules for me

As mentioned today was my first round of the year with some of the crew from last summer at Dakota Dunes. Dakota is one of the best golf courses in the province, located on a reserve maybe a 15 minute drive south of the city. We always play from the blue tees. There is a casino across the parking lot but I've only been in there once one cold winter night a little over a year ago. Pretty sure only one or two poker tables are running at a time so the live grind here would be worse than useless haha. If covid ever lets up and we can return to some semblance of normalcy maybe I'll have to flick in the odd post-golf live poker session

Like I said, the guys I golf with are all much much older than me. I am basically the ringer that subs in whenever they need a full foursome haha. I think they're all 50+ and one guy is 65 and still absolutely bombs his drives (even if the rest of his game could use some work ). I struggled out of the gate today, snap hooking my first tee shot 30 yards and into the rough. I stuck with it though, only lost two balls, and was able to piece together a few good shots/holes. I have to say, I think the workouts have helped out with my distance. My drives when I got a hold of them felt especially long today. It's all in the core, I've been doing a lot of planks which must help

I gotta say, playing golf with these guys was the absolute highlight of last summer for me. I had just started the weightloss journey again, was just beginning counselling and trying to overcome all of the troubles I had when I went out to play Dakota late one afternoon. I just went by myself but the threesome in front of me who were all walking invited me to join them on the second tee box. We played out the round, I got one guy's number, and he amazingly kept texting me all summer for tee times. To have no friends, serious depression, and a dead-end job, it was pretty awesome to have that outlet. I was always kind of surprised I even got invited for more. That first round I was super shy/quiet as I can usually be in a period of depression. I don't know what the one guy saw in me but I was very very thankful to get some new golfing buddies

Here's a little picture of my ball on the right and one of my playing partners on the left. This was a beauty approach shot on a tough par 4. 10/10 did not make the bird, my putting was pretty atrocious haha



With these guys since the second round I played with them we've played for a little money. I had never actually played golf for money before but it definitely makes the shots matter at points. The two main games we play are greenies and snake.

Greenies are just on each par 3. Whoever hits the green and is closest to the hole has a chance to win/lose a greenie. If he holes out in two putts or less he wins $2 from everyone else on the hole. If he three-putts then he OWES everyone two dollars. If no one hits the green, the greenie carries over to the next par-3. I didn't win any greenies today, although we had a double greenie on the signature #15 that I stuck my tee shot inside of 15 feet. The next guy up stuck his tee shot two inches closer than I did. $12 down the drain

Snake is just a three-putt game. Whoever is the first person to three-putt during the round gets given the snake and they have to hold onto it until someone else three putts. If two or more people three-putt on a hole the snake is given to whoever was closest to the hole on their first putt. Whoever is stuck with the snake at the end of the round owes everyone else $5. With three other players that's a $15 hit to the wallet. They have a rule that if the ball is inside the putter grip it's a gimme which is very helpful but you still have your handful of 5-10 footers over the course of the round. My putting was brutal today so I got stuck with the snake for a while haha

It's absolutely hilarious how much each golf shot mattered. I was sweating bullets trying to get rid of the snake and just laser focused trying to stick some tee shots close for greenies. In reality, at worst I could only lose $25 (which I almost did). Since someone else had the snake I only had to pay out my $10 in lost greenies. I only brought $10 with me today which I knew was a bad idea. I'm just glad I didn't have to owe anyone at the end of the round haha. Silly when I'm just casually winning/losing hundred of dollars every MTT session I play and not blinking an eye. I guess money is relative though. I feel like a shark on the poker table whereas I am definitely a fish on the golf course. For the love of the game, yknow?

If you're wondering what I shot it's the score on the bottom of the card. I forgot to grab a new scorecard and had to reuse one from last year. I was just happy to break 100, let alone 90



Here is what a seven hour shift followed by 18 holes of golf looks like as far as fitness is concerned...



Hopefully it's easy to see why I've been able to melt off the pounds when I dedicate myself. Last summer I would often cap my golf rounds with a pizza on the way home or some other random crap and I still was averaging -10lbs a month. I don't think I'll be golfing nearly as much this year now that I have poker as a serious side grind. Golf today was actually very expensive, running me up $60 for the green fee which doesn't count the Pro-V1s I bought or the gas to get out there. They have a $1000 membership out at Dakota for after 2pm which would be perfect for me but I don't think I'll play nearly enough. Factoring in poker, whether I'll actually be able to golf with anyone/alone enough, and how often I want to make the drive I don't see myself making the trip 17 times this year to break even. Who knows, maybe if I'm still in Stoon next summer and I absolutely crush it on the poker felt maybe I can afford to flick over a membership


Sorry, I just needed to get the first golf post out of the way! There is an interesting development at work regarding my hours. I am a personal shopper at my grocery store (picking online orders) but me and everyone else with that job have always been in the grocery department. Starting next week they are creating a whole new department for us since we've been so busy/successful post-covid. I guess the reason I've been able to get so many hours the last few months is because there is an hourly budget for each department. My boss was able to get more hours for us personal shoppers from the grocery department budget. That being said, now that we have our own department we will have a new hourly budget and can't steal hours from anyone else. This means I will be getting significantly less hours in about two weeks, I'd imagine in the neighbourhood of 25-30 instead of the 35+ I've been scheduled for. We also just got two new girls in so as they take more hours there is less for me.

ALL OF THIS IS TO SAY THAT LESS WORK = MORE POKER!!! I think I proved to myself what poker can provide for me as a side grind and I only see myself making more money the more time I can spend playing and studying. Our manager even apologized to me about cutting my hours and I literally said "Oh it's okay!" because in the back of my head I KNOW I'll make more money playing poker than I ever will in that grocery store hahaha

So like I said my hours will get cut probably in a week and a half. I still anticipate working Monday-Friday but I guess I'll have to wait and see. Our department manager is actually going on vacation next week just as Phase 3 begins and restaurants/daycares/etc start opening for business. Our department is barely functional without him so next week will probably be a gongshow where I will be working full 7-8 hours shifts Monday to Friday. So to recap, I am going home this weekend to hang with fam, friends, golf and decompress. When I come back to Stoon I will be working one more full-time week with my boss on vacation so I'm not expecting any short shifts any time soon. All of that being said, unless I get off early in the next two days I might not have another poker grind until Saturday June 13th. I can play that weekend and when I come back to work I'll have reduced hours, will hopefully be well-rested, and can grind poker for side income for the foreseeable future. I'm still expecting some measure of economic fallout but I honestly think it won't be felt as much at my stakes where, recession or not, fish can probably afford to degen away a $20 tournament pretty regularly.

So that's the plan for the future! Until my next poker session I have time to be in the lab, hopefully starting tomorrow. I have a couple deep runs from the last few weeks to look at and tons of other material to sift through. I was actually reading my copy of The Mental Game of Poker which I still have yet to finish. Talking about a proper learning method I think the last step is evaluation where you evaluate you're play, where you were good, where you were weak, etc. That's basically exactly what this thread has been. Hopefully you can see my learning curve progress and hopefully it will continue on the more time I spend understanding this beautiful game. See ya

The verdict is back from 888. The bonus they gave me is only available for withdrawal after I wager $1750 at video slots... VIDEO SLOTS! ****ING VIDEO SLOTS!!!!!!!

So I guess 888 did rip me off. Goodbye compensation

888 support is the nut worst. That said, get back to them, send them a few messages LITERALLY insulting them about how they they tried to screw you. It will take maybe a couple of weeks and a few slurs, but you should get it eventually. Recommendation : use these messages as a tilt-release after you had a rough session and just let loose in an email

Great idea. This literally goes against everything ingrained in me cuz I don't really have much of a mean bone in my body when it comes to other people. I like talking and I can be mean to myself but that's pretty much where it ends. I'll do anything for 50 USD tho haha

In other financial considerations, I looked into the temporary wage supplement that was up in the air for us low wage workers in Canada. After some sleuthing/asking around/contacting my MLA it looks like I won't be seeing an extra dime at all. The wage increase is going towards those people in medical care facilities that aren't making very much. On the one hand I can understand that and support it. On the other hand, me and all of my colleagues have been going to work every day for months now in uncertain and dangerous times. I may be low risk of having serious complications but I work with a lot of older people, especially immigrants, who can barely support their families on the money we make. In a lot of ways I've been fortunate since I've gotten near full-time hours as opposed to my colleagues in other departments getting 20 hours during the pandemic. It sucks that we're not deemed worth paying even though we're out there busting our ass, forced into more contact with the general public than probably any other profession all to keep people fed and supplied with essential goods. Financially I'll be okay, but I wish I was getting some extra money and it really does suck for all of my coworkers that have to feed more than just one mouth. Overall a tough day for the finances hahahahaha

Now that I know I'll never see the current $50 bonus I'll be making an 888 withdrawal and doing some remaneuvering of my bankroll. As mentioned, since I'm going home this weekend and am scheduled full-time next week I think the earliest poker session I'll have is next Saturday. I'll make sure to ***** some more at 888. If only I had some kind of social media clout to denigrate them on Twitter and get this resolved in five minutes

Almost broke 80 for the first time this year at the lake. We were playing in 50+km/h winds the entire day. Saskatchewan is wide-open prairie land and my home course has no shelter from it. Makes for some easy holes and some tough holes. I was absolutely electric off the tee, just ripping bombs from the very first tee. I had honours on every hole but #7 so that should tell you how my bro, future bro-in law, and dad played. The scorecard is me and my bro, I'm "B" and he's "E." Despite playing great all day my putting/irons were pretty trash. A hot start to the back made me realize I might get in the 70's if I parred out but then I bogeyed 14 and 15. I made a clutch par save on 16 and then an even clutcher birdie on 17 to put myself in a position to par for a 79. Of course I snap hooked my worst drive of the day behind some trees. Still had a 15-foot putt for par but I was just a little short. If my putting was even mediocre I would have been mid-70s easy

Here's how you can tell you played a round at my home course...



Balls lost: 0
Balls found: 23

TOTAL BALLS PROFIT: +23

I didn't spend too much time in the rough but my playing partners did. Most of the balls are junkers but there's a few gems in there. Set for the year anyways

In poker I haven't studied much at all this week. I've honestly been just dead tired since before my last Sunday session, I was running on fumes. I slept in for the first time in two months today until 7am and I'm feeling pretty fresh now Going through a tourney hand history where I had some very interesting FT ICM spots. I think in the thread I've probably been overestimating my skills. I was playing my C-game for the last few sessions but it was still good enough to make a few FTs I guess Also ripped off a new sternly worded email to 888 saying I would mention my negative experience to my poker playing friends which I guess would be you guys??? Hopefully my threats are heard...

Also talked a lot of poker with mom this morning waiting for everyone else to wake up. I guess it just comes out of my mouth because it's going well and it's the one thing in my life I'm excited about. Sounds like when I make a little more money my rent is going to go up from $300 to $500 a month. I've been getting a deal since I've been in serious poverty the last year+ but I'll be happy to pay once I have a few grand in my bank account. Mom said that she was glad I was doing well and that she doesn't care about the poker as long as I'm not losing a bunch and/or can stop when I want. For maybe the first time I think she was open to the idea that I'm a legit moneymaker in poker. Big words, we'll see if she can live up to them

I am absolutely itching to get back on the felt. I think my goal of getting through the cash game course this month is looking doubtful but it's mostly because I still feel like I'm trying to get my game back to where it was pre-retirement. There's a lot of ICM mistakes I've made in big spots recently that I'm not very happy about. I know before I retired I was pretty automatic when it came to ICM. As long as I keep practicing I'll be okay. Done a few HHs and doing my runner-up in the $16.50 PKO in my last session rn. Excited to do some work with bounty calculations, a new feature on HRC since I resubscribed. Made it to F2T but won't get a chance to go finish it until maybe tomorrow or Thursday.

Tonight my sis and her fiancé are having their wedding party over to the house for a BBQ. Somehow I find myself included as a groomsman. It's flattering I guess? When I was asked last fall of course I said yes but I also found it odd considering me and my sister's beau don't have much of a relationship. Like, we're friendly, we're housemates, but I wouldn't think I was groomsman material haha. I'll take it tho, try my best. My twin bro has the same position as me but he's in Regina at the moment so I have to navigate this BBQ of strangers alone whilst stone cold sober. A true introvert's wet dream. Hooray!

Did some housekeeping today with my BRs. My online BR is a little over $3.5k USD which is perfect for $22s. I'm rolled for regular $22s to my heart's content and will probably mix in turbo PKOs if I want to. I hit my deposit limit for Stars and couldn't put on as much as I wanted to but I think it's pretty negligible at this point. It's nice to have that extra grand+ in my bank account. I still feel poor af so when I have enough money in my account to golf with reckless abandon I feel pretty good about life

On the golf I'm going out for round #4 of the year with the Dakota crew tomorrow. I can go right after work which I can hopefully finish on time. As mentioned my boss is on vacay this week so I'm just trying to keep my department from self-destructing for a few more days. Monday was fine, it was me, a girl that's been working there for 9+ months and knows how to do everything, and the two new girls. Today it was only me and the new girls. My boss is notorious for not telling us **** that he should really tell us. I was woefully unprepared to run the dept on my own yesterday but my coworker caught me up and I managed to do a competent job today I just have to get through tomorrow (which looks like it could be a cluster****) before my experienced coworker comes back and the pressure will be off my back haha.

I'm preparing to play Saturday as mentioned but you never know, depending on how quiet Friday is I could squeeze in an afternoon session. Does Pokerstars realize how crazy it is to have series after series after series??? They went from MicroMillions to SCOOP to Summer Series? Wtf is Summer Series?????? I guess I'll be grinding my $22s in that while I'm back. I might even mix in some $33 PKOs in there or on Party if I get the chance. Last thing I need to do is go broke so I don't want to push it too hard haha. See you all on the felt soon

It seems pretty calculated to me as squeezing out the MOST possible monies out of this (now dying) boom. I am sure that they have enough analytics in place to realize this boom was only going to last 2-3 months at the most. If anything, Stars has shown us that they care little about the long term health of the ecosystem

online downward trend : https://www.highstakesdb.com/10402-p...on-google.aspx

I guess it does make sense from their perspective. I’ve been expecting things to slow down but I don’t think it will be as bad at my stakes. Yeah, there’ll be less people, but I think it might be close to pre-corona levels for low stakes MTTs which would still be very profitable for me. Cash games and higher stakes MTTs would take a bigger hit I assume as corona lets up. Hopefully I’ll be spared anyways...

In BBQ news from last night, I was hanging out with the groom and the best man and chatting it up pretty good in the house. As I went to go outside to eat my food my sis (the bride) said, “Blake, you can stay inside if you want.” When a friend of her asked why, she said, “Because you guys are all MY friends and he’s MY brother.” So somehow I got disinvited from a BBQ for the wedding party I’m a part of? I can read between the lines and I basically got told to **** off haha. My sister has no tact and can be pretty rude/bossy on default. I know she probably didn’t even realize she was being rude but for whatever reason it stung a bit and I had a bit of a pity party for the first time in a few months. Feeling better today, as long as I don’t indulge and turn it into a never ending pity festival ala Pokerstars I’ll be okay. Off to work, see ya

Finished my $16.50 PKO HH. I really do not understand the math behind PKOs very well. I think I can play a lot looser for bounties than I've played up to this point. I did my best to calculate KO stuff for F2T but 888 (at least how I have it configured) doesn't have bounties saved to the hands. That meant I had to manually put in each interesting spot and I honestly spent probably an hour+ just trying to guesstimate what everyone's bounties were. My math was pretty spotty but I think it would come out to being in the same ballpark as in-game which is the best I could ask for. For future reference in interesting bounty situations I'll have to screenshot lobbies just so I can input all of the relevant info and get some non-ICM implication scenarios under my belt.

Work has just been a nightmare this week. Yesterday I ended up staying a half hour extra just doing paperwork, barely made my tee time at Dakota because of it. Today everything was going more or less swimmingly with my experienced coworker back in the mix. Most orders we get range probably anywhere from 20-200 items, where I can usually pick around 80-100/hour at a solid pace. But then our last order of the day was a mammoth 3k+ item order. Usually those big ones will be 95% noodle packs but this order was like 20 packs of frozen chicken, 30-40 juice box packs, 20 24-pack Pepsi cubes, etc etc. I had to stay extra for the third day in a row and all four of us in my department plus some roving managers were working on this for the last four hours or so of my shift. When I left it was ALMOST done which looked like it would be impossible earlier so just thank god. Tomorrow looks like it will be lighter. I should be able to get off an hour or two early but I got invited out golfing with the future bro-in-law for just after noon. If I get off early I'll go play a round with him instead of poker. My eyes are still set for a Saturday return.

On the work front the verdict is in and my hours are definitely getting cut. Next week I'm scheduled for 28 hours which I think will be my new normal. I guess as the most senior part-time worker in the personal shopper department I'm entitled to 28 hours a week. Still Monday-Friday but it's one 6-12 shift and the rest are 6-11:30. It's shitty and stupid scheduling but I guess we're in a union and have to follow the rules. On initial reception of my new hours I was wanting more off to pursue poker. Now that I've thought for a few hours I think this is the perfect setup for me. Barring a freak super busy day I'll be off at noon or earlier every day which was my set poker cut-off time. Sure, I'll still miss out on some nice tourneys, but I'll be able to maximize my work paycheques and do some solid grinding when I feel like it. I can probably still get off early if things are quiet during a shift so I think this is pretty ideal for me. So factor in the full Saturday-Sunday grind with probably after work on Fridays with one or two sessions during the week and I should be able to average 150-200 MTTs a week which would be pretty solid for a fun player

I think I'm a longshot to hit my weight goal of 210 by the end of the month at this point. I haven't lost weight, perhaps gaining even a pound or two. The weekend home at the parents was just a prolonged pig out session. Since getting back to Stoon I haven't been great diet wise. It's still been okay, but I've snuck in a few less than healthy takeout meals. I've been pretty unmotivated to exercise but once I'm done this post I'm gonna go downstairs and just grind one out. Still getting in plenty of steps but if the diet isn't there I won't gain much ground.

Lastly on the golf note I ended up breaking 80 for the first time this year at the Dunes. I think it was my first sub-80 ever at Dakota. I shot a 79, a 6-over front and 1-over back, just pumping bombs and two putting everything in sight. If I can dial in the putting I could realistically threaten par again. I mentioned me playing online poker to my three playing partners which got a conversation going. Of course one guy said his granddaughter and her boyfriend both play poker for money which was a bit of an eye roller haha Apparently the boyfriend won $100k in a tourney in the Bahamas so maybe it's not the same old "I know a guy who..." blah blah blah. However my playing partner then kept talking about how the boyfriend was all in and way ahead but there were only two cards he could lose to and then...

BORING! That's how poker works haha

On the gambling note I won 3 of 5 greenies, got $5 from the person with the snake and another $2 from a guy that three-putt his chance for a greenie. I ended up making $21 which paid for gas anyways haha. I think I'll keep a running total of how much I win/lose gambling at golf, I'm interested to see how I fare over the course of the year. I've only played for money in one other round where I lost ten bucks so...

LAST ROUND: +$21
YEARLY PROFIT: +$11

So fricken ready to get back on the grind. LETS WIN SOME DOUGH THIS WEEKEND

Do you know how to convert the bounties into chips in order to calculate EVs?

I was doing my best, watched some videos on it and I think I managed to do a competent job. A lot of math I don’t have much practice in. KOs were something I didn’t study much of pre-retirement either, seems like a big leak for a poker climate that loves knockout MTTs more than ever.

Also my $2/hr danger pay wage increase is ending in the next few days! Guess I’ll be back to minimum wage, probably making a grand or so a month at work. Sweet, I love it!!! (And I need a new job) ((or I can just crush poker ))