Yeah going north is defintely not ok, unless you ask the table and everyone is ok with it and even then some places don't allow it. It's proably the lowest form of cheating but cheating none the less

I knew I was gonna get some slack for this and probably should have kept it to myself. It is, what it is at this point. I've seen many, many players do it. But anyway, I rarely, rarely do it, last night being an exception. I could count on one hand the times I have done this.

Ah, the old "everyone else does it!" excuse.

BTW, it's "get flak" not slack (flak was used to shoot down airplanes in WWII, hence the connection). http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/get+flak

Ah ya, flak... whoops and cut me some slack. You guys know you've done it once or twice!

Monday, April 18, 2016
Monday Night (+$235 @ $1/2 NL - 4 hours)

Got to Hardrock at 5PM, right after doing that last update. Put my name on the $1/2 list, took about 20 minutes to get a seat. The table was ****, but my 3rd hand in I picked up AcAh. I was UTG and raised $15. Got called in 3 spots, MP1 and BU. Flop was 2s3s4s. I led out $40 got called by both. Turn was a Qh. I led out for $70, pretty much committing myself to the pot. MP1 folded and bu jammed. I called and she showed me the nuts AKs. I think I should have led out on the flop smaller, like $25 and slow down on the turn. Played it pretty poorly.

Anyway, after that hand I went to a new table with a bunch of fun players. I ran over the table pretty much playing 80% of hands, coming in for a raise. I was running pretty well and was able to run over the table pretty much the whole time. There was only one person 3-betting me and it was an older lady to my left. I always called her 3-bets and was paying her off just to give the image that I'm never folding. It worked out pretty well. People were pretty terrified to bet into me as I was calling down everything.

This one clown sat down to my left. He made some joke about my hair like he could have mistaken me for a girl if he were behind me or some bull****. I acted like I didn't catch on or hear it. So I got into this pot, I had 85 of spades on the bb
It was straddled for $5 from the bu and I called the straddle. The new douche to my left raised it to $25. Bu called and I called. Flop came Qs5xJx. I checked and he led out for $35. Bu folded and I decided to see a turn. Turn was Ts, giving me a flush draw. I check and he leads out for $40. He has about $70 behind him at this point. I know I'm not getting great implied odd's, but **** it, I called... River came a Jc. I checked, and he bet $50. I'm like wtf, why wouldn't you just go all in? He also say's as the J comes out, "ohhh that's a real bad card for me", then bets $50. I decided to look him up and called. He goes "you're good, A high" and I showed my pair of 5's.

So, he's enraged at this point. He couldn't grasp the concept of me calling down with just a pair of 5's. I also forgot to tip the dealer and he definitely noticed this. "People are such dicks, dragging $400 pots and not tipping", "kids these days, don't know how to be respectful and tip", "plays 8-5 and calls me down when I had AK, what a bad play", he kept saying **** like this. He pulled out $25 to 'top off'' and the dealer had to tell him they don't accept $5 bills. He kept going on and on about me and how bad I was of a player and a cheap skate for not tipping. I tip these dealers so much money it's unreal, this douchebag has no idea that I come here every day to grind and tip generally real well. Anyway, he went to the ATM to grab cash to come try to get his money back. I eventually had enough of his talk and gave him some lip back at one point. He wanted to go outside and fight. Was kind of unreal this guy was getting so offended that I didn't tip. At this point I wasn't tipping on any hand I won out of spite for the guy. He was tilted so much because I wasn't tipping it was great. Obviously, I took care of the dealers and they knew what I was doing. They all know me pretty well at this point. I dragged a few big pots from him and a few of his table side buddies and took a 10 minute break and came back and he was gone. They said he went to $2/5, so I went over to find him so I could give him a chance to get his money back. But he left. No way that guy had enough money to play $2/5.... He was just some random degenerate that gave me a little rush of adrenaline for the day. Was fun while it lasted, was great for the game.

I was going to go play another session right now (2AM Tuesday morning), but decided to call it a night and get some rest. I only played for about 4 hours as I was starting to yawn a lot and was losing interest in the game so I left. I ended up cashing out $835 for a profit of $235 for the session. Feels nice to win, but I have a ton of work to do. I really have to stay super, super, super conservative and pick my spots extremely well. I have to table select well and play my hands to the best of my ability. I'm enjoying the $1/2 no limit streets for the moment. It's a nice change to play with way worse players. I think I was a bit nieve to the 'tournament players' coming into town for the series. The $2/5 game has just gotten tougher with more pros, sharks, and nits. There's still a ton of fish out there in the $2/5 games, but they are being hunted real hard. You rarely see $1/2 players getting a table change to a better game, they just play their hand and think of nothing else. $2/5 players on the other hand, the good ones, are jumping tables until they find the fish and just exploiting them. I'll be back at $2/5 soon, but for now, just gonna deflate the ego and make some solid money against some weak ass opponents.

Alright I'm going to bed...

Good luck in life and especially at the tables... not mine though!

Yes, you should follow this advice. And if you're dealt suited 2 gappers OOP don't put another dollar in the pot.

Where do you play at? The Hard Rock in ft Lauderdale I'm assuming?

Yes, that is correct. I put in 98% of my volume at Hardrock Hollywood (Fort Lauderdale).

Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Tuesday (+$475 @ $1/2 NL - 4 hr 15 min)

Did my usual and hit up Hardrock around 11:30. I took some time to get seated and watched this massive $2/5 game that was going on. This massive 'fun player' that I have mentioned in the blog before was at the table. The guy with "DADE" tattooed across his knuckles, that guy. He was in the game for a minimum of $4500, which I watched him spew off. He never had more than $1500 in front of him and left with $0. Was quite the spew session by him, a bit more than normal. Three of the players at the table really had a lot in front of them. There was at least +$30,000 on the table, it was wild.

I sat down at $2/5 for about 30 minutes in a very good game. A few of the fun players left, so I took off, dead even. I headed over to the $1/2 no limit streets and sat down. I ran my $300 up to $775 (+$475 profit) in 4 hours and 15 minutes. I decided to go get some lunch with a friend at the Asian 'Bol' restaurant inside Hardrock... Beef and Brocolli, damn good... so I took my chips off the table and was going to start up a fresh session. I got back and my buddy wanted to go back to his place to walk his dog and take a break. I decided to go with him and we watched a real good movie "Layer Cake" or something like that. Was about some drug dealers/gangsters but was real interesting. Anyway, that soaked up the rest of my afternoon and I went home after this.

The table I was at was decent, nothing special. I was easily getting people to fold, never getting 3-bet, and people were paying me off quite often. It was a no sweat session and I was happy with how I played. I know I have so much room for improvement, it's motivating me a lot right now to get better each day. I just want to play each and every hand the best I can. I'm focusing 100% at what's going on at the table, really focusing on the game. I'm watching every play and what players are doing, the comments they are making. I'm learning quite a bit watching these fun players battle it out.

Just another normal day at the Hardrock. My home away from home.

Good luck out there, especially at the tables... Not mine though!

Oh, super huge shout out to PearlJammed, Jon Turner, who is in the $10K event at SHRPO (Hardrock Hollywood) They were down to 16 players when I last checked and he doubled up with AK when I had to leave. I wish him the best! True grinder and he's crushing it lately! Super nice guy, gave me some real encouragement a few months back late one night, deep into a session.

Always been a pearljammed fan. What was the encouragement he gave you? Were you grinding in the same game?

Yes, we played many $2/5 sessions together. He just gave me some general encouragement after I realized who it was and I told him I used to follow and rail him all the time back in the day. I used to be a huge fan of his and was kind of shocked to be sitting next to him, randomly one day at hardrock. I saw his name "Pearljammed" on his OFC app and was like, whoa is that you? So, we became friends ever since that. Awesome dude, huge inspiration.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016
Another Day, Another Dollar... (+$126 @ $1/2 NL - 4 hr)

Not feeling very motivated to write, but I'll give you all a quick update. It's good that I update, so in the future I can come back and see where my head was at. Today was decent. I was the table raiser, raising about 50% of hands in position. It worked out well. I raised 56s from the BB to 10, when 6 people limped. They all called. Flop came Ad6cJd. I led for $25, got raised to $40. I called, Heads up. I check the 2h turn and he jams all in for $135. I ended up folding and he showed an A (duh, I knew what he had).

No real big hands. I took most pots away by betting or getting to showdown and being good. I only was bad at showdown a handful of times. Pretty smooth sailing session with no big ups or downs. I felt I played solid and am getting over the embarrassment of playing $1/2 NL. I'm caring less and less of what others think of me and my poker game. It's my business and I'm just here to make money, as much as possible. If that means I have to grind $1/2 for a bit, then so be it. But I feel good with my decision to drop down in limits for a week or two, maybe longer who knows. It's all how fast I build back up. I'm enjoying $1/2 at the moment, way less stressful.

Had a nice breakfast/lunch with my Mom at a real popular diner in Fort Lauderdale called Lester's. Proud of you Mom!

Feeling real motivated to play poker, can't wait for tomorrows session. Take it easy!

Good luck in life and especially at the tables, but not mine!

I don't mind getting in there at weak games

There's no other way to say this: this is just awful.

But hey, you do you.

We have no way of knowing how you play the hands you dont post, but the majority of the hands youve posted in the past 6-7 updates, have been pretty bad. The 56s hand is colossally bad.

Also, its not possible that you bet $25 and he raised to $40.

Skimmed thread, here is my insight (from a fellow SFla grinder)

-Not sure if you do, but you should have a side job for income. Server is easiest bet, you make lots of money, work with a fun crowd, get lots of p*ssy. Once you don't care about losses, you become significantly better at poker.

-stop giving out location / specifics. You shouldn't want to out your identity. It's just not good business. We all want to be DNEGs, but the reality of grinding low to mid stakes live poker is the most dangerous grinders out there are the ones who everyone thinks of as "that one guy who's a bartender or something"

-don't be ashamed of 1/2. I still play this game when I get the chance, to this day it's my highest bb/hr and I'm such a control freak for bb/hr. Instead of thinking you are slumming it with poor folks, realize you won't make this bb/hr at any other stake of poker, and make all that you can.

-be a giant nit. Also play your hand face up for value. Raise flop with AK on the QJT. As you move up, get better, have tables with less players seeing fewer flops, you can flat some nuts and check some strong hands etc. At this level though just literally tell people you have the nuts and play them hard and fast for value. If everyone folds, whatever, you scoop $50 of free money.

-expand your reach. HR can have some good games (esp now) but Mardis Gras / Gulf Stream have some pretty good 2/5s. Mardis Gras 2/5 plays big so that's down the road, but I know their 1/2s are sick as well. They also have nice chips/great food. I like gulf streams environment, feels safe. Mardis Gras watch yourself in the parking lot, haha. Isle sucks until you hit 5/10. Then it only moderately sucks. Coconut creek, like Mardis, has low table volume, but the games that get going there are sick. Kennel Club has best 2/5s in Sfla, but that might be a ways from you.

-be careful out there. SFla is a scary place and there are people who would literally kill for what you can win in a single night at HR. Be on the phone with mom/friends when walking to parking lot at night, drive through a back street / parking lot when going home to make sure not followed, etc.

Good luck

I only post my worst hands played.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

Tuesday, April 26, 2016
That's All She Wrote...

This is the update I never wanted to do, but I have to. I'm really, really... sad and nervous.

I'm busto.

Over the past few days I've been grinding $1/2 with no success. Yesterday, I couldn't get a hand to hold and I couldn't catch any draw to save my life. It was sick. Today was no different. It was just really ugly, super bad luck, running so bad when I needed it most. I couldn't do anything about it, I wasn't playing bad. I was being super patient, waiting for great spots, getting it in good and just getting owned by the cards.

****This was today... The last hand of my bankroll, went all in on the flop... Just so sick... The guy with JJ was raising every hand preflop and I finally got him right where I wanted him and boom, I run into this. like what the **** lady luck???? I had $450 and the guy with JJ had $410... left me with $40... I took it and cashed out... Last of my money... sigh****

I basically had no room in my bankroll to run bad. If I wouldn't have gone to Vegas, I would have been able to weather this storm. But I screwed up and I'm dealing with the consequences now, broke. When I left Vegas I had $2200... I got it all the way back up to $8000, paid some debts off (vegas trip) and just hit the run bad switch and now I'm sitting here, broke.

I'm really proud of myself though for what I have done. Even though I'm busto, I still put up some impressive stats, which are shown below here. I've put in 500 hours at the table with a profit of just shy of $16,000. You can see April has just been bad. It started off good, I was up $2700 at one point, but a few sessions of run bad, destroyed that.





It's so frustrating seeing that I am a solid winner and I have no bankroll. Sigh.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do right now. Obviously, I would love to keep playing and that's the goal. I'm just not sure how I can get myself back in the game...

I'm just going to relax right now and soak everything in. I had to get this off my chest. Sighhhh

Good luck out there in life guys and gals... Especially at the tables...

What in the **** having you been spending 4K a month on. I don't know or care about your personal life but damn.... You have some major spending leaks. Your bankroll is no different than a mechanics tools, without them you are sol.
Good luck op hope you get back in the grind.
Rule # 1 never go broke.
Really though it happens to everyone. I would be lying if I said I never went busto. Just learn from your mistakes: remember this feeling and when you get a decent roll remind yourself constantly that you never want to feel this way again.

I hate to say this but I saw this coming a mile away. Your style is clearly very volatile which the opposite of what you want to do if you are playing for a living and/or playing a short bankroll. You also posted hand after hand in this thread that you played terribly. You lost 7 buy ins the last 2 days at 1/2 and 1/3. There is no way in hell you can do that playing well at those stakes.

Read this.

you are +EV at those tables but you have money management issues. Get a part-time job to cover your living expenses and then grind when you are off. You will be back in no time. Learn to budget your money.

making 15k in poker doesn't mean you get to spend 15k in real life.

Not to knock on a guy when he is down but Mike is exactly right. How do you lose $1100 in a 1/2 game in 5 hours? I don't care what you say about the run bad or the table was juicy. That is insane.

You've obviously got some major leaks in your game but the first is taking money out of the roll to live on. Spending leaks can cripple anyone or at the worst resign your fate to a game that you shouldn't be playing in long term. You've got to fix those first. I don't care if you are winning $32 dollars an hour overall over 500 hours. If you are spending absurd amount of loot on bills that is a major problem.

I hope you find success and trust me when I say this we are all rooting for you but I agree with the others. You've got to find another way to cover your expenses and slowly build up a segregated roll.

This my feel horrible right now but if you bounce back and learn from it this experience might be the best thing to happen to you.

Did he go into details of exactly what happened in Vegas that blew most of his BR?