Think you would be crazy not to play in 5-10nl+ games a decent amount there (for first 6 months at least) if you live close by, right?

I’d been planning on going there for a week in a few months, but when looking to book the trip I learned what a **** show that area is if trying to come from out of town. Looks like it’s only viable to just stay at the Encore. But prices were like $750+/night. So came to conclusion with flight and hotel it’s just not worth it unless I was sure there was 25-50nl going on the regular. Pretty bummed about it tbh.


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Yeah def seems like a lot of people moving there for it. Hopefully games will be good for awhile. Boston is a good place for a casino in general imo.

Thanks you too!

I'd imagine so. I would be surprised if there's not a decent amount of dead money floating around boston waiting to gamble it up. We'll see though. Unfortunately I'm close but not super close. Around 1h45m each way which is just far enough that it'd be preferable to have a place to sleep around there after playing. If it's only 5/10 going it won't be worth it after the hassle/costs, but if there's some good 10/25+ nl or 75/150+ mix games it's worth it I think.

I've only done a little bit of looking at the logistics of it. The actual casino hotel def seemed too expensive to make sense. But I imagine there are a lot of other hotels/airbnbs nearby. That's def a factor that I'm going to have to weigh as well though once I have a better idea of what's available.

Poker has been going well the last few weeks. Still been slacking pretty hard on the volume though tbh. I'm definitely feeling pretty burned out on nlhe currently. Or at least feeling burned out on the online nlhe grind. Playing 4/5card plo on pppoker helps mix it up a bit. I'm looking forward to checking out Wynn Boston but it's still very up in the air how worth it it'll be to go grind over there much. I'm really hoping there's some decent games that go at big enough stakes to be worth it because it'd be nice to mix in a little live poker here and there, especially if it's mixed games. I'm pretty bummed to be skipping wsop this year. Unfortunately just isn't worth the long flight each way. Been dealing with some body pain issues which I'm still trying to figure out the cause. So far a bunch of tests have come back normal so that's good at least. Gonna go to my buddies place in new jersey next week and play the $500 online bracelet event so that'll be fun to try and catch some heat in that!

So the promo rate of like $575/night doesn't get you excited ? I think you're pretty much dead-on in your evaluation of the opportunity/challenges re Encore Boston Harbor. Your versatility in different formats/variants will be a big plus in a 90 table room. There should be games at decent stakes running every day that you'll have decent edge in.

I should really move my family into our cars, partner w Airbnb and Encore, and give a "poker players' rate, subject to playing X hours/day" at my house lol.

Logistically, if there are any places that charge by the week (reasonably priced, kitchen, fridge/microwave so that you don't have to waste too much on eating out), that might be a good way to do some exploring at first. I think that every hotel/motel/Airbnb within 5-10 mins of Encore might be planning to jack up rates once it opens. So it might be worth looking into options just outside of that radius, unless you can find someone w access to rooms and good rates right near the casino.

The public transportation in and around Boston is pretty solid and Encore, in conjunction w nearby towns, is trying to minimize the effect of traffic in the area, by charging like $40/day parking, but will provide a $7 ferry service to the casino that picks people up at various T stops I believe. There has been agreement to build a footbridge from Somerville, w some questions as to how fast it will be built and who will foot the bill (Encore is paying for it, I'd assume).

Most importantly, you're running good off the felt. Should have plenty of good options in a couple weeks. HOSEBT, Bd/Ba, NL and/or PLO is a mix I could see running at decent stakes, sometimes w/o LHE or Stud hi. Prob some big stud hi, OE, and biggish LHE. 10/25 big bet daily w bigger games often going, I presume. I'd be surprised if 5/10 was the biggest game. Gl!

Most people seem to think the parking fee will be waived as long as you play at least a couple hours, so that's good if it ends up being true. $40/day would be a significant added cost to have to factor in. I'm really interested to see/hear what the game quality is like and what games are running regularly. I also wonder if most of the bigger nlhe/plo games will end up being private/semi private like is the case in maryland. I'm guessing parking is going to be a big issue even if it's validated for the first month or two since I'm guessing they don't have enough spots for the insane demand there will be for the first bunch of weekends.

I was doing probably like 80/20 in LA for a month - 80% 5/10 online, and 20% 10/20 (or 5/10 if need be) live. I think it’s really great for breaking up the grind that is life online and pretty much optimal for me.

Also, the split helped me to focus less on results, for whatever reason - my brain just didn’t seem to put the two together ha, which was really nice. Also, the live play got me out of the mind f*ck I get from living such a solitary lifestyle most days.

Too bad, my girlfriend and I were all but 100% going to Boston until she got waitlisted at BU for her MBA program, we were taking apartment tours and everything. Now we are headed to ATL, looks to be a live poker desert

A very, very, very soft mixed game ran at the Commerce, I think it was 2k/4k some days - could only hope for something similar up there!

GL brother

Definitely nice when you can mix in some live to break up the online grind.

That's unfortunate about boston, seems like it woulda been a great spot for you to do both. I know nothing about Atlanta but I'm def not aware of any casino poker scene over there. Hopefully you guys will enjoy the city though, I've heard nice things!

Haha 2k/4k just a bit outta the price range. If they have a regular 40/80-100/200ish mix game going that would be amazing though. I much prefer playing mixed games and it's definitely what my focus would be on if there was a regular mixed game near me. They have a 75/150 at foxwoods but it's so far and it's mostly straight stud or OE which isn't as fun as HORSEBT etc.

Thanks man, gl to you as well, I've been enjoying your thread!

Anyone have any experience with premium massage chairs? Thinking of getting

https://www.google.com/shopping/prod...YaAlccEALw_wcB

Are they worth the cost? It'd be new and black friday sale so closer to $3500

I think your link is broken

still works for me but here's another

https://relaxtheback.com/products/qi-se

weird, google link might be geo blocked or something. looks like a dope chair

You have any experience with family or friends owning one? I sat in it at the store for a bit and it felt awesome but not sure if I'd be better off just getting a handful of massages per year for the same cost vs daily massages from a chair. There's a 10 year warranty covering everything that breaks so I feel like at only 250ish a year if it only lasted 10 years it's hard to beat that value even if a massage from a human feels 20% better quality.

just tried it in the store. for me the convenience of being able to get a massage every day at home is so much better than paying for the occasional massage. I think it's worth it if you have the money and you're going to use it consistently

Thanks yeah pretty much my thoughts as well.

Alright gonna do a quick little 2019 wrap up post. Not gonna go into much detail as it would take too much time but I'm happy to answer any questions if people have any. I don't really have any intention to post in here going forward but who knows maybe I'll see value in it again at some point.

Poker

2019 went really well poker wise but I also put in prob the least volume/hours that I ever have. I don't dislike poker but I'm just finding it very boring/tedious these days tbh, especially nlhe. If I had somewhere where I could play mixed games more often I think I'd enjoy it more. But as things stand I'm just putting in a bit of volume while I explore other things to try to figure out what I want to do next. It's definitely natural to become bored of something when you do it most days for a decade so I think most of my feelings about poker these days are from natural burnout of the game. I also am bored of the current online landscape though. There's still good money to be made so I won't be walking away completely, but it gets so tiresome having to deal with these shitty softwares or sketchy apps. And it seems like every few months one app collapses and you have to move onto the next one. I really miss the pre black friday days when you could just load up full tilt or pokerstars any time of day and grind away. I'm also not a believer that the time investment of using the available study tools in 2019 will have a worthwhile return. I think that time is better spent growing other skills.

Life

Life is mostly good. Seems like a ton of people have been passing away over the last year or so though including a good friend of mine from childhood and my father in law. So that stuff obviously sucks but is part of life we all have to deal with. Along with the low poker volume I've been spending a fair amount of time on other things. Since around September I've been doing some part time marketing work for a poker company to sort of dip my toes in and see if I enjoy it. It's been a good experience although I still don't really have any idea what other types of work I think I'd enjoy doing. I've been smart with my money over the years though so there's no financial pressure at all which makes things easier. Just taking things one day at a time and trying to find things that I have some excitement to spend my time on. I also most likely want to have a kid in the next couple years so it's tempting to have the continued flexibility of poker at least for the first few years of that. But yeah that's about it. If there's anything people want clarification on or to discuss further happy to do so, but other than that I prob won't be posting much in here. Hope everyone has a good end to 2019 and I hope the PGC's that I enjoy following don't follow my lead and continue to see value in updating theirs!

enjoyed your pgc tyman and always appreciate your insight in mine

also

very inspiring

any tentative ideas what you want to do in the future? interests/passions that you'd want to take a shot at?

I hear you on this. Learning new games and keeping things fresh made me remember what it was like getting hooked on nl for the first time. Not to mention people seem to play other games way worse. Mixing a little bit of live with online can also help things stay fresh.

Congrats on the year man. I also appreciate the insight of someone successfully taking this path for so long. Best of luck moving forward with poker and w/e else you choose

damn, didn't know you had a PGC. in for the new year in the odd case that you continue making a new one

Appreciate it. Glad the insights have been helpful.

Ehhhh honestly not really. I've tried out some things here and there over the years including working for a minor league baseball team for a bit. I love sports and love being around that environment but the early years are essentially slave labor and the money stays pretty mediocre for most. As much as I love being around sports I'm just unwilling to have no work/life balance as well as make **** money. It's honestly super hard to find work that you look forward to going to each day from my experience. My plans for now are just to keep grinding a bit for however online poker is able to stick around and learning new skills where I can. And then when I fully move on from poker my main goals with whatever I do next are mainly to somewhat enjoy the work and to keep good work/life balance. I may be starting a side business soon which is very low risk other than time investment because there's very low overhead to it, so who knows maybe that takes off.

Yup, I honestly think mixed games are great for sooo many reasons. The problem is that people seem to be pretty intimidated at the beginning, which is understandable tbh. I definitely was pretty nervous my first few times playing mixed games live and having to learn/get used to the mechanics of all the diff games. But switching games every 8 hands or so keeps things more interesting. Limit structures also are lower tension and allow for a more fun/playful environment. I've been really disappointed that the new Boston Wynn hasn't even been able to get a regular mixed game going. **** they can't even get it going at small stakes nevermind at stakes that would be worth commuting the couple hours over there for. I also think the nature of mixed games suit my skill sets better. I've never been someone who is gonna sit there and study a solver for hundreds/thousands of hours. I just want to play and use my brain in the moment to try and play better than my opponents.

Thanks, again glad it's been helpful. And yeah honestly no matter what direction I go in the future I'll def always be proud of my ability to have success over a long period of time in this game. Gl to you as well and I hope you'll be updating your pgc for awhile!

Haha yeah although imo this one was pretty boring and I also gave up on it pretty fast because I wasn't playing much poker. Doubt I ever make another one but I still might pop in here from time to time since I'll still be around here. Congrats again on your sick year!

Sad to see it end! We need more Tyman posts

Haha well seeing as I was barely posting in here anymore anyways not much has changed

in gl

If anyone knows anyone reputable selling some ACR hmu, thx