#RunGoodIsBack #WinAfterWhine #ExpertRiver #PLO500Soon #TheGreatest

#BeautifulRunout #CrushingNitregs #NotYetBusto #PLO200Soon #****PLO500 #TheGreatest



Anyway, after hitting 400 USD at my peak, I lost some back - part due to variance, a buy-in due to bad play/tiredness for sure. All in all a great gambling night, and right now I have 40 USD at a 5C PLO table and 200 in my account.

Waiting for Rockies-Reds to finish and then go to bet, if Rockies win I will make 100 EUR, but it is a freeroll since my first bet won. And I have this lovely bet alive as well:
Olympiacos - Panathinaikos
England - Costa Rica
Iceland - Ghana
Golden Knights - Capitals

10 EUR to win 200, first two games are good, Iceland up 2:0 in half time. So only Capitals remaining. Oh, and Rockies just lost. Well, **** happens, tilting as **** how they pissed the lead away in the last two innings though, I mean two ****ing wild pitches by the closer... come on!

****ing ****, how tilting. I went to bed with the score 2:0 Iceland in the 60th minute, thinking that now it rides on the Capitals. I wake up and see that Capitals won, but... Iceland ****ed it up and Ghana equalised in the 87th minute. Un-****ing-believable.

Will do a short write-up of my opinions on low-stakes PLO Zoom, based on yesterday´s observations & also of earlier play sometime later, when i have more time.

Such a busy week at work, no time for nothing at all, even missed yesterday´s footy game. But today I have taken a day off, so I will degen some poker today. Started with some HU Courchevel, ran good and really coolered opp in a hand where the flop came down KK9 w/ K9 of hearts, I had AQThh. Check, pot, I call. Turn is the case Jh, I check, Villain checks. River blank, I check, Villain pots, I re-pot, Villain calls w/ K9. Mad cooler.

Then I lost a few buyins at PLO25 (mostly bad play), decided to test the multitable grind and lasted for about five minute four-tabling PLO10 Zoom - reduced the amount of tables when I GII w/ top two on a turn, not noticing there are three to a flush on board. So I cut down to two tables, but hell, those saying that poker is dead are so wrong - the lowstakes PLO Zoom pool is sooo bad. Of course, you can´t make a living playing PLO10-25, but that´s another story...

Some hands:

#ExpertValueBet #WhyUNoCall #PLO500Soon #TheGreatest






#JustBombIt #EasyGame #PLO500Soon #TheGreatest







#FishDontFold #PLO500Soon #TheGreatest



#FunHandOfTheDay #PreflopNuts #FlopNuts #TurnNuts #RiverNuts #PLO500Soon #TheGreatest

#GtoBaby #WhatAreUSupposedToHave #FoldYour**** #UCallTurnIShoveRiver #SayNoToNits #TheGreatest #PLO500Soon



#MultiWayBluff #BlockTheLowStraight #WhatAreUGonnaHave #GTO-PRO #fu_luck #SayNoToNits #TheGreatest #PLO500Soon



#Meh #WhyINoBetRiver #OrMaybeRiverBetIsBad #Anyway****ItIWon #FloppedDaNuts #SayNoToNits #TheGreatest #PLO500Soon

#PokerIsDead #Lol #ThinValueIsWhereTheProfitIsAt #TheGreatest #PLO500Soon



#CantRunGoodForever #FishGotDone #WatchFishLose #TheWorst #PLO2Soon



#ISpewILose #TiltingRunOut #ShouldHaveFoldedPre #****MyLife #TheWorst #PLO2Soon



#Tilt #Rigged #CantWinARunoutToSaveMyLife #TheWorst #PLO2Soon



#FinallyAWin #TheWorst #SpewtardOnTilt #PLO2Soon



#ComeBackIncoming #CrushedTheFlop #SpewtardStrikesAgain #TheGreatest #PLO500Soon

#CryMeARiver #FishGotOwned #BadPlayerLoses #TheWorst #PLO2Soon



#FishOwnedAgain #TiltIsReal #BadPlayerLoses #TheWorst #PLO2Soon



#RoadToBusto #FishOwnedAgain #RunbadIsReal #OfCourseHeHasIt #TheWorst #PLO2Soon



#MonkeyTilt



Time to take a break. Still only down 1 BI @ PLO25, but tilting too hard to play at the moment.

Haven´t played online in like 10 days and live for something that feels like an eternity. Very busy at work, and when not working I try to take a few days off here and there to enjoy the summer and be with the family. So poker has moved to the back seat for now. If the weather turns ****ty, I might hit the casino this weekend, but right now it looks as summerhouse weather and not casino weather.

Been betting a lot of sports due to the WC and been running good, started the day with like 370 EUR in my betting account. Punted something like 80 on live betting on some Malaysian football game, but made most of it back on some Asian basketball tournament betting on Thailand to crush Brunei (if I recall correctly) and correctly picking the overs on total points, so I am down like 30 on live betting and in for something like 140 on today´s games.

Had a good run a week or so ago which increased my betting budget from the 50-100 level to 250+, yesterday I finally broke the 350 barrier, so with a few good results today I hope that I can push my betting roll north of 400 by the end of the group round.

FWIW, I think the best value to be found today is betting Croatia -1.5, since despite the 1:1 vs Argentina Iceland suck and Croatia are on a roll and showing great potential, and the odds are good. Also France -1.5 is playable since Denmark are a pretty crappy team too. Also bet on Australia to win (Peru bad, Australia have been playing good and still have a chance to advance), but as I said, I feel the best value is the Croatia bet.

Oh, but when I post bets on 2+2, I usually lose spectacularly, so you probably should go ahead and bet the opposite.

Lately I have been working a lot. After kids to go bed - at least two hours of catching up to emails and errands that I couldn´t take care of during the day. But in a few weeks this should end I hope that I will be able to take a few weeks off in August. The problems of owning one´s business - in theory I can take time off whenever I want since I do not have a boss that can say no, reality is a totally different ballgame though. Not that I´d like to change roles though, I think once you go on your own it is hard to go back to being employed again - I have a hard time imagining being on the employee side of things in the future.

Anyway, for the past few days I have allowed my inner degen to have some fun after the kids go to bed.

Beat: Getting crushed at PLO10/PLO25
Brag: Crushing at PLO100
Variance: Slots & Sportsbets

Yeah, so I deposited 100 EUR to a site on the MPN network, I lost a few buyins playing HU PLO20 or something like that, had like 20 EUR left so I said **** it and played slots instead. And I binked some sort of bonus game for 160 EUR on a 0,8 EUR bet, so I withdrew my initial deposit and sat with the rest at a PLO100 table.

First hand of note I call of my stack after betting turn with top two vs a player that a few hands earlier got it in on the turn on a JJTx board in a situation where even a ******ed 10-year old would range his opponent on something like 70% boat 28% AJx 2% spazz, he has up against JT and hit his three-outer (K) on the river to ship it. In my case it was an even money situation, I had a double gutshot and two overcards for better top two, he had a flushdraw and maybe a gutshot as well as a redraw, we split.

Only other hand of note that I played was some hand with 66xx, me being OOP relative to Villain, flop 653dd, bet-call, turn 3x, bet-raise-call, river Jx, check-bet-raise-fold, he saved the last 20 EUR there by folding river. Left the table with something like 180, withdrew the balance.

The next day I donked off 100 EUR on Stars, mostly firing tournaments in the 10-20 EUR buyin range, only cashed one (7,5 EUR buyin timed tournamet, cashed for like 50) and donked off the profits on some 5-card game. Went back to the MPN site with another 50 EUR, was sick of poker and tired so I figured I´ll just degen some Black Jack and slots, was down to 20 EUR when I hit some sort of bonus game again and with 90 EUR in the balance I played some more PLO100. Do not recall any hands, won a flip with top two vs overpair+FD, lost some pot, value bet a T-high flush on a paired board, cashed out for 200, donked of 20 on a slot, withdrew 180.

So all in all, things are good gambling-wise too. This evening wife and kids leave for summer house, I´m joining them tomorrow evening so I´ll probably watch the first footy game at home and then head to the casino to play poker and watch footy at the same time. Haven´t played live for what seems like ages, but in reality is probably more like a month or so.

Intro

As I sit at home I think if I should just stay in - I am tired from working a lot, from sleeping too little, and just relaxing by the computer seems so compelling. But on the other hand I haven´t played live for over a month, and I have a night off, so...

I head into the casino, and first thing I do is stop by the sportsbook and put 125 EUR on Belgium to win over Brazil. Afterwards I head to the poker room, three cash tables running and a fourth about to open... but the fourth is 2/5 NLT so I take a pass and put my name on the list for 2/2 Dealer´s Choice (which in reality means a mix of four and five-card PLO).

I hit the roulette to kill some time and spin my 100 EUR buyin to something like 350, which is quite nice since I didn´t bring a lot of cash (at my casino I can buy chips with my card at the cashier´s desk) so when a new 2/2 DC table opens I buy in for 200 and have 200 in my pocket.

First hand of note I bet-call with a flushdraw and miss vs top two, rebuy, second hand of note I flop the nuts on a 543dd board with no real redraws and lose both boards vs two pair+nut flush draw.

Time to head to the cashier for more chips but since Belgium is up 2-0 and since both hands were more or less standard I am feeling good anyway.

The Bink

As I head to the cashier, I take out my wallet - it turns out I still have 30 EUR left. And there are slots on my way. So, **** it, right? The slot switfly swallows my bills, I choose to play Book of Ra and bet 2 EUR/spin... and pretty soon I bink the bonus game.

Now, the bonus game is like this - you get a randomly chosen symbol that works as an expanding scatter symbol, so if you for example get an A and there are three A´s on the reel, you will be paid the winnings for three A´s times 10 (since there are 10 paylines). I got the Indiana Jones symbol which is the highest paying of them all, if you get five of those you win 2000 EUR on a 2 EUR bet.

I win some smallish bets (2 or 3 symbols), and also 10 more free spins. I am feeling quite good about myself, since I am up almost 160 EUR when my last free spin comes around and...



Boom! I hit 4 Indiana Jones symbols for a payout of 10x200 EUR. (Yes, if there is a fifth then the payout is 10x2000 EUR). By far my biggest slot bink ever, the previous one was to the tune of 600 EUR. This is just so ****ing sick - needless to say, I did not go to the cashier but headed back to the poker table.

Now, to the Poker Action

I go back to the table in a cheerful mood and change 500 EUR (the 2/2 games here have uncapped buyin). Do not play any bigger pots, but I win some small and some medium pots, and lose some as well, with my stack hovering somwhere between 350 and 700. Most of my profits come from thinnish value bets (like second nuts), most of my losses come for once not from running stupid bluffs but from getting outdrawn - one in particular that hurt went like this in 4-card PLO:

Open KJxx. Flop QT9. I bet like 2/3 pot, one call. Turn blank, I bet close to pot, call. River J, check and I check behind only to lose to AK96 w/ 96, so basically he had two outs to win and he got no value from it anyway (I would have been forced to call 1/3-1/2 pot, bigger bets I might fold to though, but that would depend on reads).

A while later the biggest play of the day came up. There was this guy that had been playing quiet convervatively pre, I had bluffed him out of a pot where I re-raised when the third club hit on the turn (I did not have a flush) and bet big (2/3 pot, 250 EUR) on the river and he folded, we had done some battling and I had the feeling that he was picking up on my looseness and looking to outplay me. Anyway, the game was 4-card PLO and he had raised the button and more or less the whole table had called. I had 6544 no diamonds, flop A84.

I bet out 26 in a pot of like 80 - this is something I did quite a lot in this session, betting small on the flop in multiway pots when in EP, and it worked out like a charm. Makes me harder to range since I bet wide, and harder to play back against since you can´t really explo-reraise too wide in multiway pots with air and weak hands to push back at me. Anyway, it folds to the Villain who now is last to act, and he makes it 126 to go. My stack at this point is like 450, Villain covers.

I take some time to think about it. I find it quite unlikely that this Villain would take a line this aggressive and committing with AA on this board. It had me a bit confused though, since what flushes play this way? Would he really just bomb it with a non-nut flush? Because if not, he does not have that many flush combos. So I choose to call and see how it plays out. Turn is the 2 for a board of A842 and a pot of 350, I have 300-and-change and am first to act. So I of course check, and Villian thinks a little before putting me in.

So, he has the Kx for the nut flush? Could be. Would he bet this hard with non-nut flushes? I stack my chips and pick them up as if to throw in the call... and put them down. Think some more, look at my hand, make sure to look like I am about to muck... and then think some more. In the end, I elect to call - as I said I do not believe he has AAxx, overplayed 88xx combos would be mega-tilting (FWIW I feel that he would be more likely to take a line like this with some 88xx combos than AAxx), but it is like 300 to call and 700+ in the middle, so yeah, call, baby and run it once. Oh, and FWIW, if this was 5-card PLO, my hand would most likely be in the muck on the flop (although I doubt I would lead bottom set into the).

The dealer burns, and puts up the A on the river. This might be a good card or a terrible card... and then my opponent flips JJ22 with the 2 for the only flush blocker, I snap-show and the several players at the table seem quite amazed at my call. Phew, this was a nice one, based a lot on live reads that I went with.

Win another largish pot when I raise 8776 in 4-card, flop A75 (I have no spades), I lead for 100 and get one call. The call was a bit mystifying and I actually had a bad feeling that he might have slow-played Aces preflop, but the turn was the beautiful 9 and I bet 300 (he had like 280 left), which be reluctantly put in with... :drumroll: AAxx. No board pair on the river and I win.

An hour later or so, after not much happening, I make a poor 200 EUR call on the flop (well, against Villains particular hand the call was good since my flush draw was live, but against his range it is just terrible to call with middle pair+gutshot+J high flushdraw in 5-card) in a straddled and raised family pot after he pushed first in and I was last to act, a little while later I cashed out something like 1250 EUR. Donked off a hundred or so at roulette, then fed a couple of hundred in a slot (I had won so much so I thought I´d see if I can get another big bink playing 2-3 EUR per spin) and got home with 2600 EUR in my wallet. Not bad considering I left with something like 300! And while most of those winnings came from the slot bink, I was still a winner to the tune of 350-400 EUR at the poker tables, which boosts confidence.

I´ll probably hit the casino again next Friday. Or so I hope.

Since no-one reads this anyway, and since I am too lazy/too out of time to do a write-up for a new PGC, I'll just update this one so I keep track myself.

1) Wrote up an old Degen Story of mine, actually turned out pretty nice: https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/s...ostcount=13840

2) In August I had a meltdown at the casino. I lost something like 1k on 2/2 NLT (700 of it was pure tilt) and then just couldn´t walk away from the roulette table and dumped another 1,5k or so. And then I lost several hundred playing slots the day after.

3) I took a break from all gambling to get myself sorted out. Poker bankroll of course gone.

4) Decided on playing only live poker, no sportsbetting/table games/online poker, and for now not going to the casino more than twice a month.

5) Placed a playing limit of 200 EUR/month out of pocket, all profits split 50/50 between poker bankroll and life money at end of month.

6) Results since meltdown:
August: -200
September: -200
October: +275
November: -240
Total: -365

Bankroll: 100 EUR

August - one cashgame session, bluffed off half my stack in a spot I should have avoided by folding pre. The line I took was decent but I should not be in that spot since I should fold pre. Other half lost in a flip.

September - https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/1...d-jam-1722309/
Results: runout 6x, low blank, I show, V1 mucks, V2 tables Q8o and wins.

October - played a Dealer´s Choice tournament, busted in place 11/25 after some poor plays in the endgame. Played a 70 EUR turbo bounty NLT tournament with 25 entrants and split it three-way, lost some on cash.

November - lost 140 playing cash and 100 in a tournament, still have 100 left so I will probably play another tournament later on this month.

7) What sucks is that I prefer to play cash, but playing cash with basically max 1 buyin (200 EUR at 2/2 uncapped) kind of sucks. On the other hand, a few sessions of rungood and I have decent enough poker money available to me. Or if I bink a Friday/Saturday tournament with like 1,5-2k for first. And it is supposed to be a hobby and fun play, so dumping more money out of pocket kind of feels like a waste.

8) All in all, play is OK at the moment, just need that sunrun to get going again.

Can't believe this thread doesn't have more replies. Subbed and along for the follow.

Sorry about the meltdown in the casino, so easy to wipe out a lot of good work in one bad day. Any long term poker player, even a rec needs to keep hold of themselves to prevent this kind of thing from happening. I'm sure you learned from it though and I hope things look up in the future.

Thanks!

Regarding the meltdown it is very easy looking back to see how deep down the gambling rabbit hole I actually was. And it was made worse by some rungood, like the 2000 EUR slot win when heading to the cage for more chips decribed a few posts above. And I have a quite strong addictive degen inside of me, so maybe what happened was for the best - at least the money lost was money previously won and it in no way affected my life outside of gambling negatively.

And since I started playing poker again around a year ago, I have spent around 2500 EUR on stuff using poker/gambling winnings (last big spend was plane tickets for 1000 EUR for the family, a week or so before that meltdown) so I have no place complaining.

I hope the limits I have in place now will work as a lesson towards regaining control. Sooner or later I will either bink a larger tournament or have a few good nights at the cash tables in a row and then I´ll have more money available, until then I just have to suck it up and play what I can within those limits since they are there for my own good, even though the idea of just withdrawing 1000 EUR or so to get a head start is alluring. But the problem is that 1000 EUR still is just one evening of terrible runbad/tilt, or two evenings of standard runbad, and if I withdraw 1000, what will stop me from withdrawing 2000 next time? So I just have to accept that more discipline is good for me, at least for now.

Don't Talk the Talk...

So, table talk is one of the aspects that makes live poker quite the more fun. I mean, to be remotely succesful, you need to either get a super-sunrun with regards to starting hands or be prepared to fold a lot. While the first option is by far the most fun, since playing hands is much more fun than watching hands, most of the time we need to fold more often than we'd like from a fun perspective.

So we turn to table talk. Sometimes we find a neighbour with similar interests, I like sports so often I end up talking about football, hockey or basketball at the table. Kills some time. Some people try to discuss strategy at the table, this I do not partake in. Partly because it is scary to any recs that do not have a good understanding of the game (I am a total rec and fun player, but I do have quite a decent grasp of things, so I couldn't give a ****) and partly because it is extremely boring to listen to some hot-shot-nit (nitshot?) preaching about the GTO line on a KJ2 board in three-bet pots when calling a three-bet from the button.

And if there is one rule about table talk that almost always is true - all strategy talk at the tables sooner or later inevitably leads to bad beat stories (c) me. And if I can - albeit with hiddenly gritted teeth - bear to listen about PIO wanting us to check range 83,9% of the time, listening to how someone got it on the turn with a flush against bottom two for a huge pot with X players remaining in the Y guarantee tournament makes me want to throw up.

So that is why I hate strategy talk. Of course, there is friendly stratish banter, like showing TT with a comment like "I probably should call, but **** man, I think you got me beat" or "hey, I couldn't fold pre, I had like two suited broadway cards, you get me don't you mate?", which is a totally different ballgame. And it can be fun. Since you can answer, "man, I wouldn't fold them tens, I'd just hit the set and stack the overpair" or something along those lines. And then you get some nice talk going to keep your inner degen from taking over too much and deciding that T4o is a three-bet against the nitty UTG open, because Inner Degen says "he has been folding for two hours, he'll fold if you raise, and you can barrel the flop if he calls, he'll lay down them Kings then".

If I have to choose between strat talk and no talk, I probably prefer the latter. Although silent nit-tables (knittables! since even knitting would be more fun than the nits you play with) tend to turn into surly strat-tables, so it is basically a choice between dying from diphtheria or dying from the plague. Or something like that.

Anyway, what I want to say is that silent nits and strat talk is bad for the game, so is watching **** on your phone/ipad all the time. I mean, I am not the life of the party, but I prefer to talk a little now and then to keep the time flowing and the games more lively. That keeps it more fun for everyone, and in the end that should add tons to the pro's +EV. While being a silent, seat-hopping nit - well, people like that often make rec gamblers switch to a game like roulette instead. Just sayin´...

Fun Talk
Anyway, in the 70 EUR tournament I split three-ways a while ago a nittish casino reg needled me a bit. Or maybe wanted to give me some advice. I am not really sure, his tone didn´t suggest that his comment had any malicious intent, and from what I´ve played with him he doesn´t seem to be the type that goes around berating players, but I had just put out a c-bet (and I was running quite hot, so I was raising a lot) which drew a fold from the opponent and this brilliant comment from him:
"You are the fastest c-bettor here... I mean, haven´t you thought of at least pretending to think about it before betting?"

I could, of course, answer honestly and say something along the lines of "you know, on most boards I basically know what to do more or less right away, and it is in the back of my head as soon as I put in my preflop raise as well, so most of the time I see no need to hold up the game", but that would be a boring, nittish and boasting answer.

So I instareply: "You know, I think so much during my work week, so I prefer not to think so much when playing, I am here to have fun!"

This statement isn´t a lie either - I do play poker mostly for fun, and I do spend a lot of my week thinking. That is what happens when you run a small business. But statements like this does your table image good, it keeps the games fun and friendly. At least so I hope.

I, like many other 2+2:ers, have lately found myself sucked in by the epicness of 6 bet me's PGC thread.

What I find kind of sad is that he reminds me of myself some 12-15 years ago. Granted, my major problem was alcoholism, and when I was sober I did have no real problem beating live poker, but I did spend too much of my time wasted and degenning to have any chance of having a sustainable life.

I was, however, not nearly as delusional as 6 seems to be, and I never aspired to be a pro gambler and I had a real job to go to, and I was lucky enough to have real friends instead of "friends" offering up sizeable loans with huge interest.

From one point of view, it is kind of sad to watch. From another one, it is entertaining as ****. Most of the time I just smile at the thread. I mean, it is an addict on a downhill slope about to fall any minute, but at the same time there is no real use in trying to get the addict to change, since the change has to come from within.

In other news, I have the urge to play but with a mere 100 EUR remaining of my self-imposed budget, there is no use to go and play cash and the next time I'll have the possibility to play a tournament is in a few weeks time. Playing weekday tournaments kind of sucks for me, since a good run means going to bed somewhere between 03-05 AM and I do not feel that the sacrifice of vital brain function the day after to be worth it (unless I have the day off, which I almost never do, and if I do I am most likely occupied with family stuff anyway) and playing weekend tournaments is kind of complicated due to family obligations (as going on a deep run means being home at 05-07 AM or something like that and I need to be able to sleep until lunchtime which often is impossible due to family).

On the other hand, I have no rush. My business is doing good and growing, my kids are too; and 10 years from now I'll hopefully be considerably more wealthy, able to take more time off and have less family obligations due to kids being much older.

Can´t stay away from the tables, so I deposited 50 EUR on Stars. Played some PLO10 Zoom (lost a few buyins), did well in some SnG´s, lost a few Spins and then played a 7 USD spin and got a 175 USD prize. And...

I somehow managed to run good for once. Was at 375 chips (start with 500), then in four straight hands:
H1 - walk in BB w/ J9o
H2 - raise 2x BB w/ KQs, Villain1 pushes for 12xBB, I call and win vs A5o (straight on river)
H3 - heads up now, raise 2x BB w/ 99, Villain pushes for 25BB, I call and win vs 55.
H4 - villain is AI for 0.5BB, 65o wins vs 87o and I win 175 USD.

Sweet

Finished yesterday with 130 USD. Was at around 300 at my peak, but was itching to play some tournaments, so played a lot of 22-55 BI tournaments with big guarantees.

Only noteworthy cash was in a 22USD 3-handed Zoom PKO, where I finished around 60/1200 for a total profit of around 100 USD including bounties. Bustout hand was a bit of a downer, was quite short and pushed around 15bb w/ KJo over a raise and got looked up by J8. Turned a king so I thought he was drawing dead but then the pot got pushed his way - that K on the turn gave him a gutshot that hit on the river.

PLO25 Zoom is ridicoulusly soft, tournaments seemed a lot tougher. Also played a truly lolsamplesize at PLO100 Zoom, also seemed quite soft though a lot more aggro.

Haven´t been playing since the last update. I am still debating whether online poker should "count" towards the limit of playing twice a month that I set for myself, since I really want to stop myself from going down Degen Lane yet again - I need to be disciplined if I am to continue gambling at all.

On the other hand, playing online makes a lot of sense since it I can play for considerably lower stakes than live and because it interferes far less with family life, at least compared to tournament play. And if I do not wish to break my self-imposed 200 EUR/month limit - and I really do not want to do this, this limit is for my protection and even if I could easily afford to lose considerably higher amounts, I did set this limit for a reason. But playing cash with one buy-in in your pocket also sucks, and tournaments **** up my sleep in a big way (if I don´t bust early).

However, playing online just twice a month is too little, doesn´t scractch the gambling itch enough.

Oh, and my local casino is quite small and usually has like 1-2 cash tables running on weekdays and 2-4 on weekends, with the limits played usually 2/2 and sometimes 2/4, 2/5, 5/5. Buyins are uncapped so even 2/2 plays much bigger with quite a lot of straddling and many 300BB+ stacks, but the blinds are still low. Yesterday however I saw on the casino homepage that there was one table running, and it was 5/10 with a 2000 EUR min buyin. Kind of cool, since that is quite a big game.

Flushed (Crosspost from Degen Stories)
It was a grayish autumn Sunday afternoon in the poker boom days. Probably around 2006 or so. And for some reason (most likely alcoholism) me and a friend had decided to meet up at a central bar to drink wine. After all, alcoholism on a Sunday is a whole lot easier to justify when you are sipping on quite expensive wine at a fancy place instead of sitting at some local dive bar surrounded by slots and alconauts.

Anyway, we were sitting there, chatting and drinking. My friend had a strong degen gene in him during this time, he wasn´t a raging alcoholic like me, but the degen was quite strong in him anyway and he liked to drink and gamble. Not too such excess as I, but still. So, one bottle turned into two, and before you know it, we were three bottles deep.

"So, maybe we should head down to the poker club?", he suggested.
"I´d love to, man, but I´m out of cash. I have like 20 EUR to my name after we pay the bill", I answered, since one and a half bottle of wine at that time wasn´t enough to trigger Full Degen.
"I can lend you a buy-in ir two", he suggested, so we called a cab (because **** public transportation, even it it doesn´t save you any time).

---

"Come on, give me another buy-in, man", I was asking him after busting my second or third bullet.
"I´m starting to run out of cash", he answered. "Maybe just call it a night? I´ll buy you a drink."
"No, I am not that drunk, just give me one more chance to run it up again, be a sport!"

---

I am sitting on a stack of around 800 EUR. The game has nominal blinds of 0.5/0.5, however in reality it is usally at least double-straddled, and as the evening has moved on the stacks have gotten increasingly deep. I am quite drunk, though not too bad, after some rungood I have cut back on the pace of drinks. I could just cash out now, repay my friend and leave a 400 EUR winner - which would be quite nice considering I have 20-and-change in my wallet.

But no. How can I leave when I am winning? When the stacks are deep and the game is loose? I thrive on these games. They - together with a steady stream of delusional thought processes and alcoholic beverages - are what drag me through the swamp that is everyday life.

---

The Villain - two to my right, a guy in his 30´s, Middle Eastern look, awful player, gives off small-time gangster vibes - makes it something like 10 to go with a huge stack. I look down at 84 on the button and make it 35. Some random calls, as does Villain.

Flop comes down a beautiful J 4 2 and after it gets checked to me, I bet out 80 EUR with my pair. Only Villain calls. Turn is another spade, so now the board reads J 4 2 T. Villain checks, and now I bet 200 EUR. He thinks for a while before calling.

I am feeling a bit uneasy now, I was expecting him to fold... and off to the river we go. It is the ****ing A. I am seeing visions of the Vegas and the ****ing Mirage, and to make it all better, Villain announces "All-in!"

I snap-call and table my 84 in a jubilant mood. **** yeah, I knew I shouldn´t quite when the rungood started! But then I see the Villain smiling. Why the **** does he smile? He just punted 600ish EUR on the river to me!

And then I see it.
92

Nine-of-****ing-spades, two-of-****ing-spades for a higher flush. I was ****ing ahead all the ****ing time. I watch the pot of around 1700 EUR being pushed to Villain as I get up in total disbelief.

"Man, I´m so sorry for you", says my friend sincerely as I take a final look at the chips in the middle and Villain´s hand.

---

As I walk towards the subway, dejected and deflated, I just want to cry. If I win that pot, I am out of my financial hole, at least for now. And I can go back tomorrow after work and keep playing. And...

...the lights of the shop next to the subway signal that it still is open. And I have some cash still left. So I pick up some food and a sixpack. The beer is warm and tastes ****ty but at least it lets me get through the 20 minute ride home without suffering a complete breakdown.

I step out onto the square and start my walk home. Light up a cigarette. The local pub hasn´t closed yet, there still are some old degens pissing away their life. Well, I am a young degen pissing away my life, so I walk inside, order a beer and put my last 5 EUR bill into the slot machine.

Maybe I can manage a come-back, this one time only, come on...

Playing Scared

What´s funny is that when I probably should have been playing scared - when I was a young, perpetually broke and more or less alcoholic degen - I was playing with supreme confidence. It didn´t matter if the chips at the table literally represented the last money to my name with payday being a couple of weeks away, I would push them in on a draw if I thought it was a +EV decision. I would call with bottom pair if I thought that my read was correct.

Food? **** food. I mean, I most likely had some unhealthy **** at home, I could skip lunch at work, or just borrow some money and get food (or gamble more, and win money to buy even more food). Drink and smokes was a slightly tougher cookie, a day without nicotine would drive me up the wall. Alcohol was easier though, but I still tried to keep some sort of alco-stash at home so I could hit the bottle even if I was dead broke.

But what about now? I am quite well-off financially, I have a family and after I decided to quit drinking (for quite many years, I was drinking more or less responsibly except for a few times a year when I got blindingly drunk, and I just decided I don´t need alcohol any more) a year and a half ago and took up gambling again, I have never played with money I couldn´t afford to lose.

Most of the time I was playing with won money. Even now, when I have set myself a 200 EUR/month limit, losing that money doesn´t impact me financially. Sure, winning feels nicer and gambling winnings have for the past year paid for quite a bit of nice things (new bike for daughter, new tablet, plane tickets for the whole family etc) but if I lose, well, no biggie.

However, I oftentimes - at least live - find myself playing scared when playing cash. When I played with winnings, this usually manifested itself if I had less than around 300 EUR left in my pocket after buying in/rebuying, or when my stack dropped below 200 and I was out of cash (and did not intend to buy chips with my card). Since my re-start in autumn, I am playing scared all the time when playing cash. (The one time I wasn´t playing scared was when I ran good early on to get my stack to like 350, which I then lost in an 850 EUR pot w/ TPTK vs a draw that got there, ai on flop.)

Playing scared leads to me playing a loose-passive style which is totally fishy. Instead of three-betting pre, I call. Instead of raising my draw, I call. Call, call, call. Being too afraid to lose leads to me preventing a win. Sometimes my instincts get in the way, so after raising pre w/ 98 and c-betting the Q94 flop w/ flushdraw, I fire another bet on an offsuit deuce turn and get called, only to win at showdown after it goes check-check and V´s draw misses. But a lot of the time I just botch the hand by being too passive.

I think that the main problem is that losing everything means no more gambling and this kind of makes my brain wire incorrectly at the tables. A week or so ago I played online for the first time in ages, was kind of fun and here the scared money doesn´t really factor in since I play much lower (like PLO10/25 Zoom, 7 USD Spin´n´Go, 10-20 USD MTT:s etc).

So basically I think I have to play more online, or limit my live play to MTT:s, where scared money isn´t a factor. Although I enjoy live poker a lot more, online is much more convenient and a lot cheaper.

And I don´t play scared.

(FWIW, playing scared is probably a good sign of me not being too degen any longer. Degens don´t play scared, do they? At least I didn´t when I was living like one. Not sure why I play scared at all though, since the money isn´t an issue.)

I set a small personal goal for myself, to post a 10 000 EUR profit in live poker during 2019. Since I probably will play no more than once a week, this would require some considerable sunrunning but should be doable with a bit of luck.

Played yesterday for the first time in two months. First NLT, pretty poor table, but on the weak-tight side, so me and a good LAG pre/solid post type of player picked up quite a lot of uncontested pots, and also battled a bit back and forth (I lost the only really big pot vs him when I couldn´t make myself to fold the second nut flush on a paired board to a river x/r, but won quite a lot of smaller/medium pots). Anyway, when the Dealer´s Choice table opened I was up to something like 720 EUR, so I pocketed a 500 EUR chip and took the rest to the new table.

At the start it was me and three nitty regs and I was printing money by winning a lot of small/medium pots uncontested and thinly value-betting in spots where I "should be bluffing". Ran my buy-in up to around 5-600 when the table started to fill up. Won a sizeable pot on a J634hh board, where I led the flop with a wrap and got called in three spots, and then led again when I hit on the turn (as well as picked up the backdoor draw) and got called by both shortstacks, both rivers blanked and noone else had the nuts so I scooped. Lost a sizeable one on T7xcc when I held AJ8 w/ nut flush draw and ended up with a pair of eights on the river in a four-way all-in on the flop.

Then I got berated for my play by some shortstacker, which was kind of funny. He raised in EP and got called in a few spots, I had a quite trashy double-suited hand (AQ982 w/ suits to the ace and queen) which I three-bet to 40 to thin the field a bit, original minbuyer pushes his 100 EUR in, another one calls all-in for 98 EUR total and I of course call it off, laughing all the way to the bank when I flop the flush.

"How the **** do you push with that trash hand?", the raiser starts ranting. I just smile and rack my chips.
"Seriously, AQ2-something? What the **** kind of hand is that?", he continues.
"Look", I calmly reply, "just rebuy and we´ll do it again, okay?"

He continues ranting now and then, and I just ****ing love it, let him rant if he wants to. Anyway, I bleed some chips before raising it up with something like T9665 or the like, flop is K64 with two clubs. I lead for around 30 into 40, get called by a very solid nitty guy. Now, KK is certainly in his range, but he should raise most KK on this board. He has some 44 as well for sure, and also K4/K6, and a lot of draws. Turn is an offsuit 4, so the board is K644. I check, he checks behind. River is an offsuit Queen, the final board is K644Q, pot is around 100.

I lead for 60.
He tanks a bit and then cuts out a raise to 180.
****. I should probably fold, since what the **** could he value-raise here? KK and 44. Does he have bluffs? Nope. However I do convince myself that he might be raising K4 (wtf logic, he doesn´t raise K4 or Q4 since he doesn´t expect to be called by worse and I don´t fold better), and I just don´t see the KK that would just flat on such a wet board. So I call and see the obvious KK for the nut full, and also the explanation for how he could just flat - he had ****ing KK753 with clubs for top set, wrap and second nut flush draw.

After this hand I rack up and quit for a total profit of 904 EUR. A nice start to live poker in 2019, probably back at it next weekend!

Results summary
19 Jan 2019: +904 EUR (NLT +504, DC +400)
Total 2019: +904 EUR

Leaks

After my last session - which happily enough was a winning one - I have been thinking about leaks. A major one I have is paying off river raises. For example, if you look at my last post, a very tight player raises my 60 EUR bet to 180 EUR and I manage to convince myself that he doesn´t have the top boat because he checked back a wet flop where I am bound to bet a lot of draws (and where basically half the deck completes a straight or flush on the turn), and since I don´t have the draw he is using his nitty image to try to bluff me, and I have a real hand this time and...

You get the idea. That spot was a clear fold. He had top boat, quads or a very unlikely KQQxx hand with clubs (I don´t think he´d raise without the king blocker) and I should fold my entire range that isn´t quads or top boat, period. The good thing is that I have lately - at least when winning - been able to get up from the table and go home or take a break after such hands occur.

The worst thing is that I actually tanked quite a long time before calling the river. A minute at least. Maybe more. I did think things through and convinced myself that there are very few KK combos that he doesn´t raise my flop bet with, so even though his bet screams NUTS I should call.

While the basic logic is quite sound - he will raise most of his KK combos on the flop - it disregards the most important part of the hand and it is the river re-raise. When he re-raises my river bet, it does not matter that most KK combos raise the flop. What matters is that ONLY these combos (+ quads) raise my river bet, so I should just fold and move on.

So far so good - the bad part of it all is that I haven´t thought of a way to combat this, so I naively hope that putting it all in writing will help me avoid these pitfalls on Friday, when I plan to visit the casino again for some lovely live poker action.

Results summary

19 Jan 2019: +904 EUR (NLT +504, DC +400)
25 Jan 2019: -498 EUR (NLT +82 EUR, DC -580)
Total 2019: +406 EUR (NLT +586 EUR, DC -180 EUR)

Gambool, Gambool

The 2/2 NLT table, which was the only cash table open when I arrived at 9 PM, was horrible. One deep stacked (bought in for 1000) player who I know can play and mix it up, but is not the gambling type, and then a lot of shortstacking nits. In the end it all turned out pretty decently for me, since I basically raised around 4 hands per orbit on average and got enough profit from picking up these small pots here and there to stay in the green.

One thing these "pros" (most of the players were regs) really should do is read DGAF´s thread and start catering to fish like me. Of all the guys at the table, only one was interested in keeping up something resembling a conversation, and half the table were headphone mutes. And it was ****ing boring. Good thing, of course, is that unless I get coolered I will grind out a solid profit with my style (since the nits don´t adjust - they don´t think "this guy opens like 80% in LP when folded to, I have a range advantage, I´ll just jam my puny 84 EUR stack and pick up the dead money" - they think "I have a marginal hand, I´ll just call... uh, oh, I missed the flop, and he´s betting; OK, I´ll fold and get him next hand"), on the other hand poker is an evening off for me, and I want to have fun. Oh, and noone at the table was willing to bet on red/black flops either, which I suggested to alleviate the boredom a bit.

As soon a a Dealer´s Choice table opened, I switched, cashing out a nice 82 EUR profit. DC was the other extreme - straddle, double straddle, tripple straddle, gambool, gambool. So basically we were playing a mix of 2/2/4 to 2/2/4/8/16 with one hand also being straddled to 32. First two large pots I miss, then I lose rest of stack (that I had topped up) when a good draw misses three-way, then I three-bet to 72 with AA742ss in the straddle and get four calls with less than a PSB left. Flop is TT5r and first player in pushes, his range in this spot consists of Tx and 55 so I fold with 200 left, then I make a horrendous call against a bluffy opponent on a QJTQx river with KJTx (yup, yup, blockers ftw, but it is so horrible since I even lose to a part of his bluffing range here, but it was like 3 AM, I was tired and he had bluffed me a lot so I took a completely foolish stand) and realised that it´s time to go, no need to spew of my last 50 or so EUR that I had left on the table, basically I book a nearly 600 EUR loss in a few hours of Dealer s Choice.

Probably no poker this week due to family commitments, maybe can squeeze in a session on Saturday evening but probably not.

I should probably start adding hours played to the results as well.

19 Jan: 3 hrs NLT / 3,5 hrs DC
25 Jan: 4 hrs NLT / 1,5 hrs DC
Total: 7 NLT / 5 DC

So far I have a highly sustainable hourly slightly north of 80 EUR/h beating up NLT nits, and a nice lossrate of 36 EUR/h gambooling it up in the PLO streets. Very significant sample size of 12 hours.

If my next session is a losing one, I might have to re-title this PGC to "Having a really bad downswing directly after settig poker goals".