+1 to all of this, especially bolded We should be expecting the variance, but getting it in with dominating hands and losing should, and do, feel better than getting it in with second best hands and realizing it after. (this was not one of those cases lol)

Also I do agree that your hand is playable, and in this scenario you flopped about as good as you could expect. However, without flopping a 7 your hand is almost always toast. Just feels like this hand falls into the category of hands that look pretty but aren't actually very profitable--second best flush draw, only 3 cards to a straight with a gap, although good point Angrist about it being a bottom gap.

The bottom gap was the only reason I played it along with closing action (I think I remember that right).

Nah that hands a piece of garbage but more important:

1) Just don't play plo. I don't care if it's the only game going at charity or if there's a whale playing blind or whatever. Just don't play. I'm starting to think 1/3 plo is the most profitable game I've ever played (including 5/10NL) but I still like 2/5 NL as my bread and butter. Your goal should be to avoid plo like the plague and get to 2/5 imo. You guys have really good games up there. I'm talking, really really good. You'll see once you hit 2/5, your roll really starts growing at that point. You are doing really good and just need to keep up volume and keep up discipline.

2) I don't know who started it but if we got a guy taking out a plo calculator app we made a mistake somewhere in the table talk. "Nice hand, I had a feeling, 3s are hot right now, did you see that chicks tits, etc" are all appropriate distractions.

I only give tough love to people I believe in fwiw

Haha I know. Part of the reason I left was because I was not showing the discipline required to play. The only reason I played PLo that night was I didn't find out hat was the game until I showed up and since it was a home game I didn't want to just turn around and leave out of politeness to the host.


Plus it was a good game.


I think occasional PLo is ok as long as I'm playing well but I certainly am not in a spot to seek it out. I agree that 2/5NL is stupid soft still. The Midwest has the best games around.

http://www.dancarlin.com

http://www.radiolab.org

Hanks man!

Update:

I am still alive. I have ~75% of my massive house painting project complete.

I've played poker once a few months ago and didn't play particularly well. I also got sucked out on which didn't help.

I haven't really missed playing. I've not really spent any of my roll either though so I know that I'll get back into it eventually. Likely once the weather turns cold and I can't work outside anymore.

My career is going well. I'm being coaxed into more and more responsibility which I'm not entirely sure I want.

My biggest life news is that in February I'll be having a little girl to go along with my six year old son. This will likely cut into my playing time for a while or it might not. I'm not sure. I haven't been playing at all lately so it's not like it can go down any further. I do still think about the game a decent amount and that's probably just as important as actually playing. Chances are I'll start messing around online again since that's usually how I go before playing live for a while. Honesty, I'm just too busy right now to do anything else. Summers are turning out to be my major house project months and I don't see that changing anything soon.

But poker is a part of my life and I don't see that changing either. To prove that I'm not just sitting on my ass all day here's some before during and after pics of my work.

I saw in a LCP thread that mcc bbj is like a billion dollars. Almost worth the horrible smoke.

Nice house.

That thing still hasn't hit? That's wild. I'm sure the whole room is filled with old men doing nothing but quad mining.

Hasn't hit. Something like $900k by now.

I've been down there a couple of times and the game has been awful. Not big action, and not quite your typical OMC nitfest from a day game. Some weird in-between sticky short stack thing with a room full of miserable people.

Pretty sure that's like 85% poker rooms in the US anymore. :/

So you're saying I picked a good time to get out?


I don't know it seems like Friday/Saturday for funsy's is the best way to play if you have any kind of life anymore. But perhaps that's just me turning into a shell of my former self.

A lot of the time, my preference is to sit on my porch with beer and just play my guitar for no one and everyone walking by on the sidewalk for a couple hours.

That's probably a *much* better idea than going to a home game that devolves into a PLO preflop shove fest.

I miss poker. I played once about 6 weeks ago on my last day off before my daughter was born. Ya, I have one of those now. I lost a little bit on a river suck out. My roll sits securely in my sock drawer waiting for the day when I can play again. That’ll be a while for sure. I’ve been watching this stupid WPT.com final table on fox. Everyone won their seat playing satellites in the website. They are horrible. It’s classic $1/2 poker. It’s really made me miss playing. Someday I’ll get back out there.

So if you play now, enjoy it. You won’t always be able to play whenever you want. That being said, keep it in perspective. Poker is not even close to the most important thing in life. In my time away I’ve been able to spend more time with my kids, lose 15 lb and get ripped with P90X. This year I plan to see my family and friends more and start playing golf again. Not to mention, I make about twice my hourly poker rate by just going to my job (3x when it’s overtime). Pretty much all of those things take precedent. If they don’t for you, you’re priorities are bad.

Life is short. Live it. Love it. Don’t waste time on things that don’t make you happy or don’t help you get to that place. That’s the best advice I could ever give in this thread.

A little quick math, shows that it's been over 9 months since I posted here. That's a long time. What have I been doing you may ask? I've been tending to an infant. That infant is now 10 months old. She's a horse. 75th percentile in size and weight. Not sure where that came from. I've also been getting my fat gut under control. I completed another round of P90X and have been feeling pretty good. I've gained a little back over the holidays, but plan to take it back up once we get through the new year. I am hoping to be able to start playing a little bit again. More on that in a minute.

First, we need to get a few things out of the way.

My Christmas gifts were above and beyond this year. Mrs. Spike went nuts.
First, she gave me a $1000 gift card to a golf outfitter to finally go buy my "rest of my life" clubs. I'm pretty pumped up about that. That's enough money that I'll likely have some left over to get some kid sized clubs for my son. If I can get him into it, I'll have a playing partner for the rest of my days.

I joked with her after opening the gift card, "Where's my big one?" She laughed (luckily), but then surprised me by throwing another small package. Inside was a receipt and this picture.



That's a 65 inch Q9 TV. That's pretty much top of the line. To appreciate this, you have to understand that up to this point we've been using a 32" TV that was thrown in with the furniture I bought in college. So, quite the upgrade. In all, she outspent me by about $3700.

I've taken on a new role at work that is slightly more money and a lot more responsibility. In and of itself, probably not worth it, but it is a step toward having some power to make everyone's life better. Plus, I get a better schedule out of it.


OK, now onto the poker. I was gchatting with a really good friend of mine the other day. I coached him briefly. He didn't end up getting super into poker, but he did take what I taught him and applied it to sports betting. He now runs a SB coaching web site. I told him that I hadn't played in a long time. He told me that was a shame, because I had been a good player.

For whatever reason, this was enough to make me log back in here, and start grinding micros again. I've been at that for a week or so. I've been basically breaking even. My volume isn't high enough to really say if I'm winning or not. One thing I do know is that I'm thinking through things better. I pulled my roll out and dusted it off because I couldn't even remember how much was in it. Turns out I have exactly $2000. I had been playing pretty badly for a while, so a nice long break was in order.

Wife is taking the kids out of town early Friday evening and not coming back until Wednesday. So, here's my plan. I'm going to go play live as much as possible while they're away to see if i can grind this thing back up into breathe easy territory. 10BI is still only a ROR of about 1% or less depending on where I put my win rate at. I lost all of that data a while back so I don't have any frame of reference unfortunately. Historically, I've floated right around $20/hr at $1/2.

My plan is to play as solid as possible for as long as possible. Since time won't be an issue, I want to challenge myself to get up out of my chair more than once/4 hrs. I sometimes have a problem with that. I want to keep the FPS to a minimum. I also want to actually write out my preflop default ranges. It's been a while since I did and honestly, that's been kind of a leak for some time. I tend to get action happy after a while. Having those in my pocket should help.

So, that's my plan for the next week. Lots of poker starting tomorrow night and a small homework assignment.

I hope anyone who reads this has been well during my time off the grid. Let me know if you have big poker plans for the weekend and we can compare notes.

Nice update, congrats on the promotion, family and those Xmas gifts!

I think it's great that you still have some love for the game and want to play and imo is really underrated in today's climate. I hope you give us some updates here and you run hot next week and then maybe play a little more often than recently

Poker Weekend Report

Day 1

I had planned all day yesterday to play poker at night. Oddly, I didn't feel like playing in the afternoon/early evening. My wife asked me what I was doing that night and I honestly said I don't know yet. I considered going to a movie instead. I knew I needed to get out of the house though. In the end, I did end up making the drive to the casino, and by the time I got there I was excited to play again. It's kind of funny. When I go a long time without playing I get this weird pull to NOT go when the moment is finally upon me. It's like ripping off a band aid or something. I still get nervous walking in after a long layoff. It makes me think back to the very first time I played live against strangers in public. I knew next to nothing about live rules (or good poker for that matter). I was a nervous wreck. I chopped a single table tourney haha. They had to explain what chopping was to me.

Anyway, I managed to get 7 hours in last night. Results? -$455. Boo. There is good news though. With the exception of one spot, which I am going to post as a PAHWM in the LLSNL forum, I think I played REALLY well.

A little about the session:

I selected a casino that I don't go to very often anymore because the $1/2 action is always really bad when I go there. However, the other casino I play at has also not been any good the last few times i've been down there. This one has some pretty great promotions running. Along with it being basically a holiday weekend, I thought the fish might all be there. I was wrong. My table was lousy. I never table changed though, because from what i could tell, all the other ones were lousy too. I'm not sure if the $2/5 is better. It used to be the bigger game was actually softer.

I was card dead for most of the night. In 7 hrs I got KK once (+$5 when everyone folded). I had TT 3 times and broke even. I did have a several AQ, AK hands, but as you'll see below, the board was just not on my side.


I started off the night by losing to short stacks 3 times in the first 2 hours.

TT<JJ
78< 33 on a 369 board.

And this one, which I'm pretty sure was OK.

Preflop: V had only played two hands. He looked JUST like Mike Illitch. It was crazy. He had open raised his first hand to $21 which was jarring. He had limp called his second, so my initial opinion was that he was probably willing to throw chips around a little bit. He raised in CO to $12 over 1 limp. I 3bet AKo in the SB to $35. He called. He has $62 back.

Flop: 234 $75
I check. He shoves.


I think that he almost always has 22-TT in that spot. His recent history makes me want to add a few Ax broadways as well.

So, I'm getting better than 2:1 on the call (I need 30% equity to break even). Running my hand and his range through stove shows me I'm getting like 40%. I actually performed this math at the table without too much trouble which is encouraging since I've been off for a while.

I made the call. The board bricked out and I lost to 88.

Bad news, I lost the hand. Good news I was right on the money with my reads and math IMO, and I think I played the hand just about right. If you remove the Ax shoves from his range, it becomes slightly -EV, but with the info I had, I think it was close enough to call. Plus, the table was so damn dead that I needed to make the call just for my image and to wake people up.


Before the night was over, I also went AJo<KQo vs. another short stack.


On top of that, I hit multiple TPTK with AK and lost. What I'm most proud of about my play is that for most of them I was able to fold correctly. That's always been a big problem for me. So, despite losing over 2 BI, I ONLY lost 2 BI with a combination of card deadedness and turns and rivers being generally nasty to me.

Here's my fun fold hand of the night.

I raise AK to $10 UTG. 2 people call. The main villain looked like John Malkovich if he were homeless. Dude was seriously scruffy. He started the hand with $136.

Flop: A 2 3 ($35)
I bet $20. John calls. Others fold.

Easy value bet. I'm looking to stack worse Ax hands. He could have pretty much every combo of Ax, any pocket pair, 45.

Turn: A 2 35 ($75)
I bet $35. He shoves.


He's repping 2p+. Two points.
1. I had recalled by this point, that at this casino, if someone raises after the flop, they have a nutted hand damn near every time.
2. He immediately leaned back and started gazing off into the distance. Anywhere but at the board. TELL.

I thought about it for a minute, because I was getting 2:1 with TPTK, but made the fold. Some loud mouth at the other end of the table started exclaiming that the onyl 4 he could rep was 44 or 45 and yada yada he probably didn't have a straight. John rolled over 44.


That was pretty indicative of my night. When I don't play for a long time, I forget about the long stretches of crushing boredom you have to sit through. Often the reward is a sh*tty turn card.


So, the belt is getting a little skinny. I really hope things turn around tonight. I have a good feeling that it will if I keep playing well. I did not make any frivilous preflop raises all night. I didn't make any stupid c bets into 5 people. etc.

I set my alarm every 1-1.5 hrs and forced myself to take a walk for 5 minutes. It was really good for me and I think I will keep doing that. It seems to work.



Check in with LLSNL for my PAHWM.

Holy **** Spike's alive.

Since you've been out of it for a little while, here's a 2 min update on the local scene. The two local charities are struggling a bit more than usual. I think the one to the east is going to close as the building management changed over and doesn't like having the room in there. The current staff is even more incompetent than ever, and they've pissed off a bunch of players with odd rulings and things they've said. Black Mel Gibson in Seat 5 won't play there anymore for example. Been out to the rooms in Westland a few times and they're pretty good for action, and a larger pool of players.

Home game scene is all PLO, moved locations, and is pretty hit or miss. A bunch of the big donators are out of money, getting killed sports betting, or been wife-banned.

Days during the week are still busiest at MCC, especially if you want a $2/5 game at noon on a Tuesday. MGM has really picked up with their promos and has a lot more $1/2 action than MCC. The $1/3 PLO and $5/10 PLO at MGM are supposed to be pretty sick. Haven't sat in either yet, but railed a couple of friends and the $1/3 does look good. GT is the same crapshoot that it ever was. Room across the border has OK action on weekends, and a lot of easy to exploit regs, but it's probably not worth the $10 in tolls, few% exchange rate penalty, and cavity search from Border Patrol.


I like the first AK hand with that stack size. The second is one of those potentially frustrating spots that are correct to fold. Not really a bad result for a single 7 hour session considering the card runouts and the potential for rust issues.

Sad to hear about the charity rooms. They really shot themselves in the ass when they canned J. It’s always been a race against time with the charity scene. People were gonna lose their money eventually and PLO has hastened the downfall exponentially.

MGM is my standard venue now. Will likely end up there today.

Man, this is exactly me.

If i take a break from poker (even coming off a winning stretch) its sooooooo hard to go back. But then one session back and I get addicted again and need to play 3 times a week.

This isnt just poker. I do the same thing with fishing. I wont fish for like 3 months in the winter and then I cant be bothered to get out bed in the spring. So its not like i avoid it bc of its negativity* or something. Its truly just that once you break a habit I guess the passion can lose its luster.

I also get the nervous feeling. Last time I played i was playing 5/10/20 regularly, now Im on the waitlist for 1/3 and I have goosebumps.

*to be clear, I do attribute alot of my negativity to poker. But my point was I take extended "meh, why play?" breaks even on heaters.

Yuuuup. I’m a cycler. I wonder sometimes if that has to do with other life circumstances. Like, job, marriage, etc.

I wonder a lot of poker is good for my mental health. I lean towards no when I’m playing a LOT. Ironically, I can’t really play at a high level if it’s only sporadic.

Yea, letting J walk hurt them more than they thought it would. It just didn't happen right away. The PLO has hurt, but Landscaping H and a few of his buddies have started booking sports bets with an online site and cash payouts, and that's just *murdered* a bunch of regular players.

Hmmm, I'd really need to go back through my log to find the longest gap I've taken from playing poker since I started playing regularly in about 2008. It's probably about 2 weeks over Christmas vacation. Maybe longer around finishing school too. As much as I like winning and outplaying people, sometimes just sitting and folding and waiting while nothing happens is kind of relaxing. Or maybe I'm just a weirdo.

Hello my friends,

My life is kind of upside down right now. Mrs. Spike is not going to be Mrs. Spike for much longer. As you can imagine life is kind of crazy. On top of that, I’m orchestrating a small coup at my job because my superiors are incompetent. The silver lining is that I’ve been able to play a wee bit of poker this month. My roll was under $1000 at one point but I’m happy to say that I’ve managed to double it this month. Let’s hope that continues. Life is crazy but I really feel like it’s headed for better things. I love my thread!

Welcome back. Sorry to hear that you're going through some turmoil.

Maybe this picture of a 1/3 V I played with last week that almost rivals the guy in your avatar will cheer you up.

Lol you’re right. That does almost rival it. If I could turn this into a 1/3 DBag pic thread I’d be ok with that.

Also he obviously has AK.